This week, DIGITIMES heads to Shenzhen to cover an expo showcasing the world of optoelectronics, a class of technologies that serves as the link between electricity and light. In today's era of pervasive digital connectivity, from smart glasses to cars to phones, this event is expected to give us a glimpse into the hardware supply chain behind these devices, and increasingly behind the global AI infrastructure build-out.

Acer's Asia operations posted double-digit revenue growth at three subsidiaries in the first half of 2026, led by Altos Computing, Acerpure, and Highpoint Service Network. Altos is seeing particularly strong demand for AI servers, prompting Acer's president of Pan-Asia Pacific operations Andrew Hou to say the unit will need to double its headcount to meet customer demand.

Acer has landed a nearly US$200 million tablet order from the state of Uttar Pradesh in India, underscoring the company's growing public-sector business in one of its fastest-expanding markets. Acer Pan-Asia Pacific operations president Andrew Hou said India revenue exceeded US$700 million in 2025 and could top US$800 million in 2026 as the company moves closer to a US$1 billion revenue target.

The same AI boom that is filling handsets with new features is draining the memory supply that makes cheap phones possible—and in India, the world's second-largest smartphone market, buyers are paying for both. Xiaomi India's leadership told HT Tech that prices will keep climbing through the second half of 2026 as the global chip shortage persists, even as the company doubles down on AI features it says should be felt rather than seen.

India's tablet market posted modest growth in the second quarter of 2026, a sign that enterprise demand and higher-spec devices are gaining importance for buyers worldwide. The shift toward detachable and productivity-focused tablets suggests vendors are adapting to rising costs, changing purchase patterns, and broader demand for more versatile computing options.

For years the quantum industry has worked on a discouraging assumption: that a machine capable of doing anything commercially useful would need a million qubits or more. Fujitsu told a Taipei audience that the number is coming down sharply, and that its own work is part of the reason.

Acer used its next@acer global press conference at IFA 2026 in Berlin, Germany, to unveil non-PC products as part of its strategy to enhance resilience. At the event, the company introduced an e-paper display, a foldable screen, an e-scooter, and its latest gaming handheld, with chairman and CEO Jason Chen noting that Acer will continue making new products to wow consumers.

India's refurbished smartphone market is expanding as rising handset prices steer consumers toward lower-cost premium models. The trend extends well beyond India, showing how rising device costs, trade-in programs, and formal resale channels could reshape smartphone access, sustainability, and upgrade cycles for buyers in other major markets as well.

Acer chairman and chief executive Jason Chen said artificial intelligence deployment is already underway, with enterprise customers showing a clear preference for running AI on-site rather than in the cloud. He said that trend is opening new business opportunities for Acer in on-premises AI hardware, even as the broader PC market faces inventory and pricing pressure.

Nvidia used IFA 2026 to argue that serious AI work can run locally as well as in the cloud, pairing an October launch date for its RTX Spark Windows PCs with free software that distributes independent inference requests across compatible machines already on a local network.

India's PC market grew steadily in the second quarter of 2026, but the gain appears to reflect stocking by retailers, businesses, and distributors as much as end-user demand. The trend signals how supply pressures and pricing changes can reshape device markets far beyond India.

As Acer marks its 50th anniversary in 2026, Chairman and CEO Jason Chen said at the company's next@acer global press event during IFA in Berlin, Germany, that the PC maker's four future growth drivers are PCs, smart healthcare, smart living, and sustainability. He said the roadmap underscores Acer's stature as an international brand and its continued ambition.

Acer used its next@acer global press conference in Berlin during IFA to unveil a broad lineup of new products, highlighting its push into AI, sustainability, thin-and-light notebooks, e-paper, handheld gaming devices, electric scooters, and the Acer SFF RTX Spark desktop design powered by the NVIDIA RTX Spark superchip.

GoPro's planned US$285 million merger with Starman Optical could give the struggling action-camera maker a path to recapitalize its balance sheet and expand into optical transceivers, AI infrastructure, defense, robotics, and aerospace. The deal would repay GoPro's roughly US$92 million in debt while leaving existing shareholders with about 10% of the combined company, potentially marking a major shift in GoPro's business beyond consumer cameras.

Dell Technologies' quarterly results showed record AI server orders and backlog, but executives used the earnings call's question-and-answer session on September 1 to disclose a more detailed point not in the headline numbers: the pace at which enterprise customers, rather than just large cloud and sovereign buyers, are adopting its AI infrastructure.

Dell Technologies closed its fiscal second quarter with revenue of US$47.0 billion, up 58% year over year, but the more telling number is what happened below the top line: operating income more than tripled, and the operating margin nearly doubled to 11.5% from 6.0% a year earlier. AI infrastructure did not just add revenue this quarter — it pulled the entire company's profitability up with it.

Apple has unveiled new Mac mini and Mac Studio models, equipped respectively with its first 2-nanometer chip, the M6, and the four-die M5 Ultra. Most notably, the latest 2-nanometer process is used only in the entry-level Mac mini, while the 3-nanometer M5 Ultra is officially billed as the "most powerful M-series chip yet."

Taiwan’s manufacturing business-climate indicator moved into the index’s red “prosperity” category in July, with the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER) saying on August 31 that a sharper rise in optimism among local manufacturers lifted its operating environment index. At the same time, year-over-year export growth to the US fell to 28.0% from 267.6% in January, the lowest level since February 2025.

Silergy said at a recent earnings call that most of its applications, excluding its computing product line, posted quarter-over-quarter growth of more than 20% in the second quarter of 2026. Automotive revenue rose about 50% year-over-year, industrial revenue increased 49.7%, and data center-related applications grew nearly 90% year-over-year.

John Ternus becomes Apple's chief executive on September 1 with comfortable near-term numbers and an uncomfortable medium-term question. Apple's June quarter was a record. Its largest business has not sold materially more units in a decade, its newest hardware category is shrinking, and the technology reordering the industry runs, for now, on someone else's model.

When John Ternus becomes chief executive on September 1, the company he inherits will be measured on a scorecard Tim Cook wrote, not the one Steve Jobs left behind. Fifteen years of accounts show two different machines wearing the same logo: Jobs ran a company that accelerated, Cook ran one that compounded. The distinction matters for Ternus, because the growth rates Cook normalized are the ones he now has to beat.

What Tim Cook leaves John Ternus on September 1 is best measured not by margin but by geography. Cook spent twenty-eight years concentrating Apple's manufacturing in one country, then a decade trying to make that concentration politically survivable. Both halves are unfinished, and both are now Ternus's responsibility to bear.

Tim Cook's most durable non-financial decision was to treat environmental and social performance as product attributes rather than corporate disclosure. It worked well enough that Apple's own succession announcement lists it alongside silicon and services. It also leaves John Ternus a set of commitments that get harder every year, a legal challenge to the way they are advertised, and no executive whose full-time job is to deliver them.

Global smartphone shipments are set to shrink sharply in 2026 as soaring memory and core component prices hit the market, but Samsung Electronics is moving in the opposite direction. Rather than passing costs fully on to consumers like some rivals, Samsung plans to keep shipment volume steady through the Galaxy S26, Galaxy Z Fold 8, and Galaxy A series, and could even retake the No. 1 spot in global smartphone shipments.