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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Proud_Infidel who wrote (45019)	4/4/2001 9:26:48 AM
From: Proud_Infidel	Respond to of 70976

IT Products Face Low-Cost Era April 4, 2001 (TAIPEI) -- The present worldwide economic slowdown may be bad news for information technology companies, but promises to benefit consumers of the industry's products. The economic slowdown has not only resulted in cuts in stock prices, interest rates and house sales, but has also brought down the price of IT components, terminal products, and communications fees. Major producers have responded by cutting their prices, enabling consumers to buy IT products at a considerable saving. Intel Corp. lowered the prices of Pentium III and Celeron microprocessors by 5 percent to 19 percent, and the prices of high-level Pentium 4 by 1 percent to 4 percent in March. Further cuts in Intel's processor products are said to be not far away, probably in mid-April. The TFT-LCD panel industry is presently facing hard times, and may have to do so throughout the year. The biggest TFT-LCD user, Compal Electronics Inc., revealed that it might be a very hard year for the display industry, with an increasing number of manufacturers required to shoulder losses of between NT$3 billion and NT$5 billion. (NT$32.29 = US$1) Compal predicted that the TFT-LCD glut was likely to ease in the second quarter, and that would help the prices to end the downward pattern. If things go smoothly, a TFT-LCD shortage would eventually emerge in the third quarter, bringing the prospect of a revival for the industry in 2002. According to the Institute for Information Industry (III), the notebook computer industry will be forced to cut its prices sharply, as it responds to price cuts in the key components of IT products, such as TFT-LCD panels and CPUs. In fact, several overseas laptop leaders, including Toshiba Corp. and Dell Computer Corp., have already cut their prices by between NT$3,000 and NT$20,000 in order to boost buying interest. The price cuts even cover the latest products, which the laptop giants expect to enjoy wide sales. To deal with the entry of the new fixed-line network companies into the telecommunications industry, Chunghwa Telecom Co., Ltd., Taiwan's largest telephone company, announced the fee cuts of 10 percent to 50 percent on domestic long distance and international calls in a bid to preserve its dominance. The battle for market control between dominant Chunghwa Telecom and the three fixed-line network operators is expected to accelerate the approach of low-cost telecommunication fees. (Commercial Times, Taiwan)