The coronavirus pandemic is threatening the lives and livelihoods of many, but despite the uncertainty lying ahead of the IT industry, Taiwan-based ODM Wistron - a major maker of notebooks and servers - remains optimistic that its sales will grow in 2020. The outbreak in China has convinced many makers of the need to relocate some production lines to other countries, but Taiwan-based PCB makers are reluctant to move out, as their new plants in China are set to come online. The memory sector has been a lucky one in the face of the outbreak, with module makers poised to report profit growth for first-quarter 2020.Wistron expects sales growth in 2020: Despite the coronavirus pandemic, Wistron chairman Simon Lin still expects the company to enjoy another year of revenue growth in 2020.Taiwan PCB makers to stay put in China despite pandemic: Taiwanese PCB makers, despite the coronavirus pandemic's impacts, still expect 5G handset demand to pick up later this year, and remain reluctant to move production out of China in the near future, according to industry sources.Memory module firms to post profit growth in 1Q20: Memory module houses are expected to post impressive profit and margin results for the first quarter of 2020, driven by chip price increases, according to industry sources.

The US-China trade war last year sent many vendors, including Apple, starting making plans to have more of their products made outside of China. While the relocation has yet to complete, the coronavirus pandemic has further convinced them of the need to diversify their production bases. Meanwhile, major ODMs have resumed most of their capacity in China,with the notebook and server supply chains stepping up efforts to fulfill shipments that have been deffered by the outbreak. Inventec expects server and notebook shipments to shore up its sales in second-quarter 2020. But there is so much uncertainty lying ahead. TSMC has yet to revise its sales guidance for 2020, but that may change if the outbreak prolongs.Apple accelerating production relocation outside China, say sources: Apple is reportedly accelerating plans to diversify its manufacturing risks by removing more of its production out of China, with sources from the supply chain claiming that the vendor is relocating some capacity for iPhone to India and acoustic devices such as AirPods and HomePod to Vietnam.Inventec upbeat about 2Q20: Inventec expects to post substantial revenue growth sequentially in the second quarter, thanks to a pull-in of orders for notebooks and servers.TSMC may revise 2020 outlook: If the coronavirus outbreak fails to be under control by June, TSMC will likely revise its sales outlook this year despite its advanced technology leadership, according to market sources.

Demand for software as a service (SaaS) has been on the rise, highlighted recently by needs for remote working in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, which has prompted more firms to adopt cloud-based collaborative operations, according to Kdan Mobile Software founder and CEO Kenny Su.In particular, demand for mobile device-based collaborative work software solutions developed by Kdan in the China market has drastically increased from 300,000-400,000 downloads a month usually to a double level of 600,000-800,000 ones.In a recent interview by Digitimes, Su talked about the prospects of SaaS and how his Taiwan-based compnay has expanded overseas.Q: What's the progress of Kdan's overseas expansion?A: Founded in 2009, Kdan is headquartered, along with an R&D center, in Tainan, southern Taiwan, and has its Asia operational center in Taipei. Kdan has set up two operational bases in China, one in Japan and one in the US. Kdan currently has 130 employees in total, 80 of them are in Taiwan.Kdan in April 2018 finished series A funding, raising venture capital of US$5 million from US-based WI Harper Group, Taiwan-based Darwin Venture Management and Japan-based Accord Ventures. In 2019, Kdan set up the operational base in Japan mainly for cooperation with Sourcenext, the largest Japan-based software distributor, to tap the Japanese market.Currently, the US is Kdan's largest market, accounting for 40% of total download volumes and revenues, followed by Europe with 25%, China with 20% and Japan with 5%.Among Kdan's product lines, Document 365 cross-device app for viewing, signing and editing PDF documents, and Creativity 365 cross-device content creation suite consisting of five creation apps are the major sources of sales. Demand for DottedSign, an e-signing service launched in fourth-quarter 2019, is growing fast with over 50,000 downloads and more than 20,000 registered members so far. Most of users have continued use and been willing to pay for the e-signing service.Q: How does Kdan manage employees of different cultural backgrounds?A: Kdan adopts an OKR (objectives and key results) model as used by Google and several international enterprises by setting company's visions and missions as the common goals for employees to strive for. Every employee, including me, lists 3-5 objectives for a certain stage, and these objectives together with what has been done should let the others know to secure transparent internal management. For internal communication, Kdan has set up a Slack-like communication platform across departments and offices for all employees at different locations to communicate via multiple channels for collaboration, with any discussion and talk being transparent.Q: Why did Kdan transform its business model?A: Kdan had originally offered paid apps, but in view of increasing competition, offered app versions with basic functions for free download and those with advanced functions on a chargeable basis. Viewing that Apple and Google had offered subscription schemes, Kdan followed suit in 2015.In addition, Kdan has used a tracking model to ascertain whether users, after free trial use, need advanced functions and are willing to pay. Currently, over 80% of initially trial users have moved on to use chargeable advanced functions.Kdan has extended operation from B2C to B2B 2-3 years ago. Compared with B2C, B2B marketing takes a much longer time, but many enterprise users usually stick to original suppliers. Basically, Kdan provides cloud-based services for small- to medium-size enterprises and licenses customized APIs (application programming interfaces) or SDKs (software development kits) to large-size ones for them to introduce Kdan-developed software to their internal operational processes.Q: What are Kdan's visions and goals in the next 10 years?A: There are many China-based SaaS (software as a service) providers with market values of over CNY10 billion (US$1.43 billion) each, but there are no Taiwan-based SaaS ones. Kdan, with business beginning from the Asia market, aims to become the first Taiwan-based global SaaS company. Kdan plans to tap the Singapore market as a stepping stone into the Southeast Asia market.Global demand for apps from individual and enterprise users is expected to double every 3-5 years along with fast growing digital transformation, and therefore Kdan expects substantial growth in revenues over the next 3-5 years. Kdan currently has 7-8 million monthly active users and has reached more than 200 million downloads from mobile devices cumulatively.In 2020, Kdan aims to obtain ISO 9001 quality management system certification and will hike quality for internal operational process, enhance brand reliability, start series B funding and evaluate feasible targets of mergers.While US-based SaaS brands will remain leaders in terms of global market share, Kdan is confident of reaching larger market shares in Taiwan, Singapore, Japan and other Asian countries.Kdan Mobile Software founder and CEO Kenny SuPhoto: Fu Shih-min, Digitimes, March 2020

Taiwan's Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) and StanShih Foundation, established by Acer founder Stan Shih, on March 20 jointly hosted a three-day training camp on entrepreneurship via online conferencing, avoiding a physical meetings in response to the coronavirus outbreak.The activity has been hosted half-yearly since 2013, and has so far trained 560 teams and incubated 190 startups. The organizers have also recruited outside investors to invest over NT$3 billion (US$98.98 million) to help these teams and startups over the past seven years.MOST minister Liang-gee Chen and content promotion platform Taboola's vice president Ning Ning Yu both participated in the event to share their experiences.Taboola vice president Ning Ning YuPhoto: NAR Labs

Despite the coronavirus pandemic, 5G chip vendors still have high expectations for 2020. But until the pandemic eases and end-maket demand recovers, the vendors are under pressure to cut 5G chip prices in order to secure orders. But not all are suffering because of the virus. Phison Electronics has reported clear order visibility extending to October for NAND flash controller chips, with clients eager to build up inventory.5G chip vendors mulling price cuts: Despite the coronavirus pandemic, market watchers remain upbeat about the market for 5G mobile chips in 2020. Nevertheless, major chip suppliers have been mulling reducing prices in order to secure more orders, according to industry sources.Phison sees clear order visibility for NAND flash controllers through October: Taiwan-based NAND flash controller chips vendor Phison Electronics has seen clear order visibility through October, as clients in Europe and the US have rushed their orders to build inventories amid the worsening coronavirus pandemic, according to company chairman KS Pua.

Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs in 2018 began to promote installing smart machine boxes (SMBs) on manufacturing equipment to boost development of smart machinery, but SMBs alone are insufficient to completely reach smart manufacturing, according to industry sources.SMBs mainly function for production management by virtue of web-based visual display and analysis of collected operating data, the sources said. However, the data do not reflect the entire production process of production, which also involves workers, components and materials handling, and disposal of wastewater or waste materials, the sources said.For example, components and materials are in any of the four statuses: manufacturing, quality inspection, being conveyed and waiting, and manufacturing status, the only one of the four to make real value contribution, usually takes up less than 10% of the whole time incurred.According to smart manufacturing solution developer Servtech, component/material management, such as efficiently feeding and switching them to minimize waiting time, is crucial to smooth production and a blind spot easily neglected.

LED firms are generally optimistic about mini LEDs, expanding wafer, chip and packaging capacity for the segment. Apple reportedly prefers mini LED to OLED for its medium-size devices and will launch an iPad Pro with mini LED backlighting in the fourth quarter of 2020. For Apple's freshly launched iPad Pro, its suppliers are ramping up shipments for the new tablets, with their volumes to the vendor expected to rise 40% sequentially in the second quarter. With the needs for working and learning from home rising amid the coronavirus pandemic, IT devices, such as tablets, are expected to see demand pick up. And EIH is expanding production capacity for color e-paper solutions for e-book readers.Mini LED expected to get significant boost from Apple adoption: Mini LED is expected to get a significant boost in applications as Apple is proceeding with R&D of devices adopting mini LED backlighting, and may commercialize more such devices in the next five years, according to industry sources.Supply chain ramping up shipments for iPad Pro: Makers in the supply chain for Apple's just-unveiled iPad Pro are ramping up their shipments, and the volume for the new tablet series from the suppliers will climb about 40% sequentially in the second quarter, according to industry sources.EIH expanding colored e-paper solution capacity for e-book readers: E Ink holdings (EIH) is expanding its production capacity for colored e-paper solutions dedicated to e-book reader and other new applications, according to company sources.

Belgium-based developer of 3D printing technology Materialise has designed a 3D printed door opener that allows people to use their arms to open and shut doors without touching the doorknobs, according to Taiwan's Photonics Industry & Technology Development Association (PIDA).This can avoid coming into contact with the coronavirus that is believed to be able to stay on the surface of doorknobs for a long time, PIDA said.Materialise has called for 3D printing service providers around the world to use its design to print the opener, PIDA said.Isinnova, an Italy-based startup, has designed a 3D printed respirator valves and reportedly has printed 100 units for a hospital in Brescia, northern Italy. The hospital, which has a large number of coronavirus patients, needs many respirator valves, each of which can be used for up to eight hours only. The cost for a 3D printed valve reportedly is less than EUR1 (US$1.13).

AR glasses have a significant role to play in cushioning impacts of the coronavirus pandemic on manufacturing operations, as they can be used for remote collaboration between equipment engineers and users to quickly address mechanical failures, according to Tom Liang, chairman of Taiwan-based AR smart glasses maker Jorjin Technologies.Liang said manufacturers usually have to wait for engineers from equipment suppliers to come in person to fix mechanical failures as users can hardly determine the causes of the failures.But through AR smart glasses, engineers can remotely inspect the situations and instruct users on how to locate and fix problems or even replace components, not only saving high errand expenses by engineers but also sharply reducing equipment downtime, according to Liang.The remote collaboration function of AR smart glasses allows engineers of equipment suppliers to help global clients with maintenance of old machinery systems or installation of new ones without going out, Liang said, stressing this can prevent the risk of exposure to the coronavirus.Liang also disclosed that during the extended Lunar New Year holiday in Februay, Jorjin's Chinese subsidiary Top Smart Technology and its partner Kedu Healthcare Tech in Shanghai successfully addressed failures of two computerized tomographic scanners for a hospital there within 20 hours through the assistance of smart AR glasses, compared to 2-3 days usually needed for engineers to fix in person.

Within the semiconductor ecosystem, TSMC is a barometer occupying a pivotal place giving it a comprehensive picture of the direction and outlook of the chip maket, and expectations of its clients - including powerhouses Apple, Nvidia, ADM, Qualcomm and Huawei. The foundry house has not yet revised its first-quarter 2020 guidance, but it remains to be seen whether TSMC will turn pessimistic in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. For PC vendors, the first half of 2020 will probably be a disappointing period with shipments set to nosedive. Worse could be lying ahead for the PC market if the pandemic cannot be contained soon. And Asustek estimates its first-quarter revenues will drop 30% on year with PC shipments to fall 40% sequentially.TSMC outlook seen as indicator for 2H20 market conditions: Whether TSMC will turn pessimistic about its outlook this year will be an indicator suggesting how the coronavirus spread is impacting the pure-play foundry's target markets, according to industry observers.Global PC sales to plunge 30% in 1H20: Global PC sales are set to fall over 30% on year in the first half of 2020, due to poor sales in China, Europe and the US in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, according to industry sources.Asustek expects 30% revenue decline in 1Q20: Asustek Computer expects to post a revenue decline of about 30% on year in the first quarter of 2020, with shipments of its PCs to see a 40% decrease sequentially.