TH Tung, chairman of Taipei Computer Association (TCA), likens the startup scene - whose fundamental elements are capital, talent, technology and market - to wine making, which depends on the sunshine, rainfall and terroir. Apart from these, the type and quality of the grapes are also very important.That is to say, the characteristics are very important in raising the added-value. There have been so many different wines using various types of grapes around the world, but Burgundy winemakers have been sticking to one single grape for their red wine, and yet they still manage to stand out in the industry. This is because the wine from this appellation has its characteristics and clear market target.Tung takes his analogy further to the watchmaking industry. Electronic watches are the mainstream of the market, and the popularity of the Apple Watch and other smartwatches has been rising. But the Swiss makers of mechanical watches have never lost their appeal to consumers of the high-end market segment.Tung noted that Taiwan does not lack capital, but the concern is how to direct these investment funds into startup businesses that may stand out from their international competitors. He disagrees with the idea that the government should make a policy to encourage a massive influx of capital into Taiwan. He said that without a clear set of regulations to implement to such policies, a lot of the funds would end up not in the tech sector, but rather in the real estate market, shooting up housing prices in Taiwan and creating a bubble in the stock market.Taiwan's characteristicsIn the face of growing competition from Southeast Asia, Tung said Taiwan, with limited land and a small population, is very similar to Israel, Singapore and the Netherlands, and it needs to develop its own characteristics and focuses on specialized services in order to stand out from the global IT ecosystem, and create a "Taiwan brand." The road to innovation will lead Taiwan to see fast growth again in the future, Tung believes.The government plays an important role in economic and technological developments. The developments in Japan and Singapore are examples. Singapore is high in the rankings of countries with a free market economy. But its government has been embracing a planned economy, having successfully turned the country into an important petrochemical hub in the area. It has also become a financial center, thanks to government policy support.Singapore has a large population of migrant workers, all of whom stimulate developments of various business sectors that provide services and support for the workers. The city state may not be much bigger than Taipei, but it is the destination of an annual volume to 15 million tourists. To boost its tourism, Singapore has made policy changes that were unthinkable in the past, such as legalizing gambling.Tung said the lesson to be learned from Singapore is that there must a balanced development. Taiwan should not rely too heavily on its ICT exports; it must maintain a balanced development.Japan may not be as open to foreign workers as Singapore, but the Abe government has already introduced a new policy trying to attract more foreign workers.For Taiwan to attract foreign talent and create an optimal environment for startups, it must introduce ways to relax the restrictions on foreign investment, such as easing the visa requirements.The government roleWhile Tung shows skepticism about how market economy and planned economy can really work together seamlessly in Taiwan, he still thinks there is room for the government to make changes in terms of opening the door wider to foreign professionals.Tung said he can foresee that the gradual relaxing of regulations and establishment of IT industry infrastructures will motivate more Taiwanese investors to return home, creating job opportunities. This would boost the startup scene in Taiwan, as well as the quality of life and jobs.But he identified one major problem with the government's calls for businesses to move their manufacturing operations back to Taiwan from China - a trend accelerated by the escalating US-China trade war.Relocating a plant is not just about moving the equipment and recruiting assembly line workers for the relocated the plant. It will need a team of managers to run it. The original team should be able to make the relocated plant up and running fast, but the government is not supporting the idea of letting Chinese managers come to work in Taiwan, making it difficult for Taiwanese businesses to relocate their manufacturing plants back home.Many Taiwanese businesses have clearly shown strong intentions of returning home, but the problem with the relocating of the managers needs the government relaxing the regulations.AI and 5G: The 'magical' innovationsWhile 5G and IoT promise explosive growths of the next generation, Tung noted that every era has its own "magic" that boosts the economy. Japan relied on washing machines, refrigerators and TVs to get out of the economic doldrums in the post-World War II era during the 1950s. And in the 1960s, the "magical" products were cars, color TVs and air conditioners.Tung said the color TV fad that Sony created at the time was comparable to what we feel about the trendsetter, Apple, of the present time. The birth of air conditioners gave people more comfort on hot summer days. Tung said such changes that increase value and solve problems are what tech innovation is all about. But he thinks management of innovative technology is as important as the hardware and software technology itself.ICT vendors have been able to make a living as long as there are customers buying their products. But in the AI and 5G era, things may work differently for businesses. With so much R&D going on and so many innovative ideas emerging, it is the infrastructure of smart city that will be necessary to materialize the R&D and innovative ideas of businesses. That means that businesses' efforts alone will not be sufficient; it will need strong government support - from the national to local levels - to upgrade and rebuild the cities in order to materialize the AI and 5G applications.Tung thinks 5G, AI, edge computing all offer good opportunities for Taiwan's startup sector. For example, it is much easier to implement self-driving in Taiwan than in Australia, where the vast territory and sparse population makes it cost-inefficient to make intensive and extensive deployments to enable self-driving.For 5G, China and South Korea are looking to begin commercialization in 2020, but it may take Taiwan two to three more years to catch up, Tung said.He said 5G development involves a lot of investments. The costs for 5G licenses and infrastructure constructions are key to whether smart city and self-driving cars can succeed. If the operators have to spend big in deploying their networks, consumers will have to pay expensive rates, undermining the popularity of 5G. But if the operators have to sacrifice their profits in order to boost the number of users, it will leave them with few resources to continue building and improving their networks.Unicorns and disruptive businessesAccording to Taiwan's government figures collected between 2007 and 2014, the survival rates of startup businesses from the first to fifth year of operations are 89%, 78%, 69%, 62%, and 57% respectively. They are similar to those in the US, Germany and other countries that are known for their startup scenes.Tung said it is not easy for Asian startups: The risk of investment is high, and it is very difficult for one to last beyond 10 years. Startups may all want to become unicorns - privately owned businesses whose market cap is estimated at more than US$1 billion - but Tung pointed out that few unicorns have been able to make a profit. He said the aim of incubating a unicorn should therefore focus on what value and service it can bring to society.The mentality of investors has changed. In the past, a company that wanted to get listed on a stock market would have to make profits for several years before it could stand a chance of submitting an application for listing, according to Tung. But now investors look for companies with potential, allowing them to go public before making profits. Google and Facebook are examples. Google offers Google Map, Gmail and Android, with skeptics initially asking how it could make money by offering so many free services. But these companies have now become giants whose market cap and revenues are among the top of all IT firms in the world. Their operations have also changed fundamentally people's life and disrupted all business models and supply-demand patterns.But different countries have their own unique situations and progress of development, Tung said, disclosing that some governments in this world may still require their suppliers to provide PCs that can support floppy disks - which still functions as a main storage format of their data.If Taiwan wants to play a leading role in the next wave of IT development, it must create a friendly and diverse environment, making the best use of its talent and resources, according to Tung. It would then be able to help its enterprises and startups compete with international companies on an equal footing.But the slow progress in making rule changes cannot be totally blamed on the government because there are many areas in AI, such as the medical sector, that need extra caution in planning. He said policymakers must seek advice extensively, and learn from other countries, in order to find a new way for the development of Taiwan's startups and emerging technologies.Taiwan aspires to become the Asian Silicon Valley, but Tung said such an ambition should not simply mean building more factories. It must be implemented with a broader vision and clearer directions in the form of an international industrial park. Tung suggests that a tariff-free repair hub within one kilometer of the airport could save a lot of time and paper work, shortening the time to fix devices sent from abroad. Such a value-added operation would attract international investors and make it a new practice for the IT ecosystem. That is the reason why Pegatron (where Tung is chairman) maintains international repair centers in Taoyuan, Japan, California and Shanghai, with a total workforce of over 2,000. Income from services will only increase when the quality of services increases, Tung maintained. Running repair centers in places where labor costs are high may increase the operation cost of a company, but the high value from shortening the repair time will increase customer satisfaction and their willingness to pay more for the services.The turning pointJapan enjoyed years of post-war prosperity until 1985 when the Plaza Accord was signed, stalling its economic growth since. Tung said the kind of global economic conflicts that Japan fell prey to is not unique, the latest case being the escalating US-China trade war.The US-China trade row is definitely presenting challenges to the world, but Tung thinks every generation has its own challenges and opportunities. The oil crisis in the 1970s actually prompted the four Asian Tigers to successfully transform their economy. Tung added that it may still take some time before Taiwan can successfully transform its economy.TCA chairman TH TungPhoto: Michael Lee, Digitimes, May 2019

As Gigabyte Technology's premium gaming brand, Aorus has come to its fifth year of operation in 2019. Continuing its multi-product lineup strategy, Aorus is offering its latest gaming monitor series for 2019 featuring exclusive tactical advantages in games and a patented Active Noise Cancelling (ANC) technology to significantly improve users' experience in communication.The gaming market is expanding every year with growing numbers of gamers joining. Aorus also sees the business opportunity and has been keen on participating in the communities, aiming to strengthen its brand recognition. To understand the strategies Aorus has adopted for the niche sector, Digitimes talked to Eddie Lin Gigabyte's executive vice president of Aorus Brand Marketing, about the gaming market's current status.Q: What is Aorus ' view on the gaming market in 2019?A: During our annual review last year, research reports and feedbacks from our social media groups and gamer communities all showed one prominent trend in the gaming market: it is gradually turning into an all-around entertainment phenomenon.Many game developers have started partnering with streamers and video content creators such as Youtubers, looking to attract the attention of a new gamer group that we called the popcorn gamers: Watching someone playing games has already become a new way of entertainment similar to watching traditional TV programs.The popcorn gamer group has already been included as part of the gaming market by many research firms studying the market.According to a research report, the worldwide gaming market has a value of US$134.9 million in 2018 and the value has been picking up by around 10% almost every year for the past several years. And it increased by about that rate in 2018. The major driver that supports the gaming market's double-digit value growth is this phenomenon that turns the sector into a new entertainment ecosystem.The business opportunity of popcorn gamers also offers a new career route for e-sport players after retiring from e-sport competitions. In Asia, a couple of e-sport players have been recruited by companies to become streamers or Youtubers.Another area in the gaming market that has been rising in the past few years is the mobile game. Because of smartphones' increasing hardware performance, game designers have started bringing intense games such as Arena of Valor and PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG) to the mobile platform, attracting a wave of new gamers into the mobile game sector.Because of the games' friendly user interfaces and the fact that gamers only need to spend a short amount of time to complete a match, these games have been able to attract some popcorn gamers to join and play themselves, relatively expanding these games' overall player bases. Their participation also boosts demand for gaming peripherals and hardware rigs as they try to become more competitive in the games.As the number of gamers continues expanding and more diverse groups of gamers join the sector, we expect the market to stay on the growth track for the next couple of years.Q: How does Aorus introduce itself and handle branding?A: Since 2017, Aorus has been focusing on raising its brand recognition in the gaming market. Most resources have been spent on participating at worldwide major gaming events such as North America's Penny Arcade Expo (PAX), Germany's Gamescom, France's Paris Games Week, China's ChinaJoy, Russia's IgroMir, South Korea's G-Star and Brazil's Brasil Game Show (BGS).In Taiwan, we have mainly participated at Wirforce and Taipei Game Show (TGS).We now participate at an average of 10 shows at least a year and by showing our brand images via booth decorations and product innovations, Aorus is confident it will promote its brand recognition.Aorus has also been sponsoring e-sport teams that share the same passion and values with us. After one year of sponsorship activities in 2018, Aorus has slightly adjusted its strategy and instead of directly handling all the sponsorships via the headquarters, Aorus has passed down some of the work to local offices in places where the e-sport teams come from, as Aorus' local staff should have better understanding of how to promote Aorus brand products with the e-sport teams in the market.Aorus' headquarters are now primarily focusing on handling the promotions with e-sport teams that are more globally renowned. Just a couple weeks ago, one of our sponsored e-sport teams, G2 Esports, won the 2019 League of Legends Mid-season Invitational in Taiwan.Aorus has also started creating video content for promotions in social media such as Facebook and Instagram and through these sites' management tools, the company is able to get more information about where its customers come from and what kind of content its followers are interested in.Q: How does Aorus provide better gaming experience for gamers?A: We are aiming at building an ecosystem for gamers, and the gaming monitor is the final piece to fill the last gap in its PC gaming lineup.Although the Aorus brand has often given consumers the impression that its expertise mainly lies in motherboards and graphics cards, the team believes if the brand is looking to make products that meet customers' demands, a strategy of developing multiple product lines is necessary.The tactical gaming monitor is the latest product line that Aorus has come up with for the brand. Before creating the monitor, Aorus conducted a lot of market research to identify really exclusive and unique features, looking to differentiate from competitors' products, since we are looking to redefine the meaning of gaming monitor, not just a spec comparison.The unique feature of Aorus' tactical gaming monitor is its Active Noise Cancelling (ANC) functionality. By connecting a headset to the monitor, the technology can cancel out environmental noises and sounds and pass on players' undistorted voice to their teammates, giving users of the monitor an advantage over opponents in communication, while not violating any of the rules.Aorus' latest 25-inch monitor also features a 240Hz refresh rate and a specially designed setting to adjust user OSD interface, allowing the user to make adjustments to the monitor via a mouse or a keyboard. Users simply need to connect their monitors with PCs using USB for the functionality to work.In addition to the monitor, with Aorus' expertise and strong R&D capability in PC components, it has come up with the world's first Gen4 SSD memory solution, which can dramatically enhance data transmission speed to shorten users' processing time.As we have said that Aorus is looking to build an ecosystem for customers, a new service to fulfill that goal is currently underway as we are trying out the Xtreme Combo bundle to provide top-of-the-line hardware combos that satisfy customers' demanding needs.One example is the combination of Intel's Core i9 9900K processor with Aorus motherboard and liquid cooling solutions. Since the latest-gen CPU is not easy to acquire in the retail channel and there is no guarantee it will feature a clock speed over 5.1GHz, it has become an issue for some consumers that wish to obtain the top-tier hardware.It is rather difficult for consumers to purchase 50 units of the same CPU in order to filter out the one with clock speed over 5GHz; but it is an easy job for Aorus. Therefore, we like to offer the services to help consumers find specific hardware combination they are looking for.Before we ship out the product combos, our engineers will conduct a thorough inspection on the hardware to ensure our customers will receive well functioned products, minimizing the chance of hardware failure.Eddie Lin, Gigabyte's executive vice president of Aorus Brand MarketingPhoto: Joseph Tsai, Digitimes, May 2019G2 Esports won 2019 League of Legends Mid-season Invitational in TaiwanPhoto: Gigabyte

Science minister Chen Liang-gee has been making a lot of efforts grooming Taiwan's startups, a clear example being his ministry's arrangement of a large delegation to Eureka Park at CES 2019. Taiwan has also been keen to promote its own edition of startup showcase, InnoVEX. Ahead of the annual event, which takes place in Taipei from May 29 to 31 this year, Chen talked about Taiwan's plans and visions for promoting its innovations and startup teams.The 4 elementsThere are four elements supporting entrepreneurships: Capital, talent, technology and market, according to Chen. Taiwan had seen a disruption in investments in startups since the dot-com bubble burst in 2000 and the migration of manufacturing operations to China - until recent years. Now more locally-groomed or overseas-educated talent is jumping onto the startup bandwagon, with government stepping up efforts to connect them with local and overseas accelerators.Chen described the accelerators as the "table top" sitting on the "four legs" - his metaphor for the relationships between the funding programs and the four entrepreneurship elements.He said the four elements need the accelerators to integrate them. The accelerators introduce technologies and industries which can inspire startup teams' innovations and connect them to the industries. Whether it is small fledging startups or more experienced enterprises looking for new opportunities and clients - they can rely on such help to wow the market with solutions that connect well with the ecosystem and meet what the market really needs.Entrepreneurship and ICT prowessChen said Taiwan has done it differently from the US and Europe in terms of grooming its entrepreneurs. In the US, some start setting up their businesses while still in high school. In Taiwan, starting a business may be more about fulfilling parents' expectations. That is why young people in Taiwan have received little training or education that steers them towards entrepreneurships. Despite that, now there have been a lot more young people in Taiwan founding their own businesses with support from the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), receiving much attention and acclaims from many other countries, said Chen.He noted the strong ICT technology prowess that Taiwan has built up over the years remains the core competitiveness of the country when providing support for worldwide businesses. Taiwan has a population of only about 23 million - accounting for 0.36% of that of the global total - but it has still been able to build a strong and globally-renowned ICT supply chain that the world relies on heavily. The science minister is very confident about Taiwan's global competitiveness, enabled by talented people in diverse fields who are able use their knowledge in cross-domain applications.Exchange programsExchange programs with foreign institutions have allowed Taiwan researchers to see more of and connect with the rest of the world, such as the Stanford-Taiwan Biomedical Fellowship Program (STB) - which has entered its 10th year - and the Berkeley-Taiwan Biomedical Fellowship Program (BTB) - which has entered its second year. Chen likened these exchange scholars to "potential seeds" that can inject new energy into Taiwan when they return home.These seeds may grow into "big trees" by founding their own businesses, or become mentors of other startup teams. Chen said such interaction between different teams will enable creativity in multiple and diverse forms. He also noted that some programs have enabled one to three entrepreneurs to stay and learn in Silicon Valley for two to three months. But he said such exchange programs may be expanded to include 20 to 30 startup teams a year. These programs will let the startup teams get a quicker and clearer understanding of the resources and principles of entrepreneurships in other countries, and at the same time connect them to the innovative ideas of other communities.Hardware-software integrationTaiwan must think hard how it can integrate its hardware prowess with software in order to catapult its innovations and startup teams to higher levels in a new wave of digital transformation - an integration sought after by those embracing the Fourth Industrial Revolution and attempting to fulfill demand for Internet of Things (IoT) applications.Development of new products will have to cater to specific scenarios. The hardware-software integration must also provide multiple services and a link between those front-end services and devices. Chen cited Taiwan's precision machinery sector as an example. He said it is not the machines themselves that need to be upgraded; what is needed is that they have to come with multiple IoT sensors that connect and inspect each and every step of the procedure during the manufacturing process.He said the key to future development is not just the hardware - namely the machines, but also the software that managements the machines.In contrast to software development, hardware manufacturing and production capacity installation need much more capital investments. That's why many startups - usually short of funding - choose to focus on software development. Chen suggested the idea of "hardware accelerator." He said hardware alone may not create too much value, but if software development is based on extension from hardware, then the results would be more competitive.Attracting foreign startup teams and accelerators to TaiwanChen said the Taiwan Tech Arena (TTA) plans to incubate 100 startups a year, with half of them to be foreign teams. This is meant to let local teams come into more contact with international counterparts, investors and experiences.As to how Taiwan can attract foreign startups to come here instead of Silicon Valley or Europe, Chen said the key is let them have industry links and opportunities that they may not get in other countries. Their businesses will also be getting support from relevant government projects. That is to say, according to Chen, stationing in Taiwan will add to their competitiveness, which will naturally attract and keep them here.The minister said introducing foreign accelerators into Taiwan will also be important. But he said running an accelerator needs a lot of investments in capital, time and human resources. The government offers a lot of help to diversify business risks and to build up ecosystems. Taiwan will also set up locations and connections in other countries in a bid to bring foreign accelerators to Taiwan.Taiwan may be a small country with a small market, but Chen pointed out that Singapore is much smaller, and yet has been very active in the startup sector. He thinks Taiwan can work as a partner for startups from Singapore and other countries, facilitating the development of Taiwan's ICT applications and forming a more complete ecosystems enabled by international links and better technologies. He said France is also stepping up efforts grooming its startups, and Taiwan may send its startup teams to France, Israel, Boston, Singapore, and San Diego - places and countries that are known for their startup developments - for short-term exchange. Chen thinks such exchanges can inspire Taiwan startups' innovations.The 'national team' of startupsIn order to let the world see Taiwan's innovations, MOST set up a pavilion at VivaTech in France. The MOST-led delegation of 40 startup teams to Eureka Park at CES 2019 was also a huge success. It means that startups in Taiwan no longer need to fight alone; they will receive support from the government, which is keen to promote the nation's startup scene as a whole.Chen said Taiwan is well-known for its ICT manufacturing capabilities, but it is now time to shape a distinct image in the startup sector. He said it may be more efficient to work as a "national team," building a new image of Taiwan as a whole to attract investors and create opportunities for its startups.Cross-department effortsMOST focuses its resources on advancing the country's technology, which means it plays a leading role in helping other government units and academic researchers try out their ideas. For example, in 2017 MOST worked with the Council of Agriculture to develop smart agriculture. MOST integrate all necessary technologies and build up a agricultural park whose management the COA later took over. Chen said that's the role his ministry has been playing.MOST has also been working closely with academic researchers. The risk of failure is high for academic research teams to build up their startup businesses. But more investors now accept that only a minor few could grow into "big trees."AI and automationChen identifies three major directions for Taiwan's AI development in the next five to 10 years: voice database; information security; self-driving cars; and digital medical care.Chen noted that voice is still the fastest and most intuitive way of communication between people, and therefore AI-enabled technology for dialogue will be very important. MOST and various other institutions, such as Public Television Service (PTS) and National Education Radio, have been working together to build up a voice database.A total of almost 2,000 hours of Chinese voice data has been collected, with plans to expand to a database of 5,000 hours - presenting a significant collection of various languages and dialects that are used in Taiwan, Chen said. As for use of the database, Chen said big ICT firms may choose a relevant field where they can make use of the voice data and incorporate it into their chips. With the local database, Taiwan firms would not need to get licenses from Google or other international IT firms when putting their voice technologies into practice, Chen said.Many businesses have been keen on adopting new technologies to increase their values, solve problems, and cut costs. Chen noted that a lot of the conventional industrial sectors are introducing AI, big data analytics and predictive maintenance to enable their manufacturing. He thinks AI applications will see explosive growths in the next five to 10 years, particularly in the form smart manufacturing, such as using IoT technology, cloud-based control and robots. The smart medical care may grow more slowly because the laws will be stricter in order to protect human lives.AI chip development is key to Taiwan's future IT industry. The age of the Internet is one where the winner takes all. But the AI age of the future needs domain-focused applications that integrate software and hardware. And this is exactly where Taiwan stands a chance of giving birth to its own unicorn businesses. He cited a few examples where services are built on hardware: electric scooter vendor Gogoro; AI application provider Appier; and AR/VR-based shopping platform iStaging.Ambition: 3,000 startups a yearChen's ambition is to let Taiwan give birth to 300 new startups every year. Such a massive scene would create tremendous momentum for interaction and exchange of resources, technologies, talent and capital.Chen said he began promoting startups in 2007 when he was still at National Taiwan University, and since then he has seen a lot of changes to people's mentality - changes that are positive for entrepreneurships. Back then people were afraid of failures, but now more investors and enterprises accept the fact that it takes time for startups to grow. They also accept the idea that it is worth taking the chances as long as a certain proportion of the startups will succeed.Science minister Chen Liang-geePhoto: Michael Lee, Digitimes, May 2019

The availability of quality medical resources is one of Taiwan's most powerful competitiveness, but how the resources can be better utilized to not only take care of the health of residents in the country but also rake in more foreign exchanges through serving patients abroad has attracted growing interests among medical professionals and hospitals.Quite a few doctors or healthcare professionals have chosen to set up healthcare startups rather than staying in the stable clinical medicine environment. But without the support of clinical resources, they can hardly get instant feedbacks for their products or services to facilitate improvements.Such new healthcafre startups have attracted ICT engineers. The combination of career-minded healthcare professionals and ICT engineers is gaining momentum as a new force in search of breakthroughs amid the restrictions of the national health insurance program and uncertainty in the electronic products market. It would be ideal for clinics or hospitals to keep their best technologies and services for residents in Taiwan while also serving international patients via cloud platforms.In this regard, clinics or hospitals can install the most critical clinical decision and analysis capabilities on their cloud service platforms, and the physiological data collected from overseas patients via remote IoMT (Internet of Medical Things) hardware devices can be sent back to the platforms for analysis and diagnosis. This way, online healthcare staff can extend virtually on-spot medical care to overseas patients without wasting precious medical resources.Joshua Healthcare's export operation modelSuch an operation model is being carried out by Taipei-based Joshua Healthcare founded by Alpha Lin, an expert in hernia repair surgery. Lin's clinic has set up a cloud medical service platform allowing international patients to make hernia surgery reservations, and its medical team can help patients arrange airport pick-up service and make flight ticket, hotel room and surgery reservations.The medical team can continue to handle post-surgery medical care for the patients, asking them to periodically upload their physiological data to the cloud platform to facilitate follow-up tracking of post-surgery conditions. Joshua Healthcare can refer Vietnamese patients to a Taiwan outpatient clinic at Ho Chi Minh City University of Medicine and Pharmacy, allowing doctors in both countries to engage in online consultations.This way, Joshua Healthcare can integrate Taiwanese doctors serving at diverse departments to meet foreign demand for high-end healthcare services through remote cloud platforms. The doctors can spend most of their usual time serving patients in Taiwan, and their outstanding clinical surgery techniques can also attract overseas patients to come to the country to undergo paid surgery services on a full-payment basis. The medical tourism's economic benefits for transportation, lodging, restaurant, and travel services will usher in a multi-win integrated medical service model.Medical tourismHigh-end healthcare market in Southeast Asia has been dominated by Singapore, and the top-two medical tourism destinations in the region are Thailand and Malaysia. Despite its world-class clinical medicine, Taiwan has lagged behind in medical tourism due to a lack of supporting measures and business models. In fact, remote healthcare services for patients in Southeast Asia or even Taiwanese investors there can become a new "blue-ocean" market for Taiwan's clinics and hospitals.Another business model is being embraced by Changhua Christian Hospital (CCH), which is based in central Taiwan, for its operation in Thailand. In line with the Taiwan government's New Southbound Policy, the hospital's superintendent Kuo Shou-jen, CEO Nina Kao and a branch president Lee Kuo-wei have paid visits to top-tier hospitals in Thailand with the aim of leveraging CCH's abundant medical resources to help local hospitals in the Southeast Asian country build smart healthcare systems and dedicated medical care services. CCH has been active in providing VIP medical checkup services for a large number of Taiwan investors and their managers in Thailand and offering healthcare consulting services for them through messaging app LINE. The hospital is also building strategic partnerships with hospitals there to localize and better healthcare services to Taiwanese investors and local people in the Southeast Asian country.(Ken Yu is CEO of iMedtac)

Samsung has a far smaller share than TSMC in the wafer foundry sector, but Samsung's technologies built from its experience in memory and Exynos series AP production are as good as any other leading players. At the moment, Samsung's non-memory businesses together contribute only 7% of the company's revenues, but profits from its memory business are 3.2 times those of TSMC. However, in terms of profits from non-memory businesses, TSMC are 6.2 times Samsung's.As the business opportunities from smart city, smart home and IoV begin to rise, demand for APs is also expected to pick up dramatically. With sales of car-use semiconductor products expected to enjoy a CAGR of 18% for the next few years, Samsung's acquisition of Harman and its partnership with Audi for supplying car-use APs are both expected to bring in strong revenues: a conventional car may require around 200-300 ICs for its systems, but an autonomous driving vehiclemay need as many as 2,000.TSMC and Samsung have both announced plans to build their 3nm manufacturing capabilities, but market researchers estimate that the fee for designing an IC on 3nm node would be at least US$500 million. For a 28nm planar-type IC, the average design fee is about US$51.3 million, but one using 7nm FinFET process costs nearly US$300 million, almost six times as much because of all the expenses from related intellectual property (IP) and others. Most IC design houses would prefer to stick with foundries such as TSMC and Samsung that have technological advantages, but the high costs involved in making chips at the top-notch foundry houses will remain a problem for IC design houses.(Note: This is part of a series of articles by Digitimes president Colley Hwang on the latest developments of the IT industry in the wake of the US-China trade war.)

The worldwide semiconductor equipment market, which had a scale of US$60.5 billion in 2018, is controlled mostly by companies in the West. The development of China's semiconductor industry has been constantly threatened by possible US government bans on makers providing most advanced equipment to China's firms.In addition to local players that have been aggressively investing in China's semiconductor industry, multinational enterprises have also been doing the same. Of the worldwide semiconductor equipment market's scale of US$60.5 billion in 2018, China contributed US$12.2 billion or 20.2%. However, according to information from the upstream supply chain Digitimes has obtained, only less than 40% of the amount was from China-based firms. The rest was from demand from multinational enterprises such as Samsung, SK Hynix, Intel and TSMC, for their capacity expansions in China.Many market watchers originally expected the proportion of China-based semiconductor players' equipment purchases to rise on year in 2019, but have recently revised their views, estimating the percentage to slip in 2019. Meanwhile, semiconductor players in Taiwan who had been conservative about investing locally in the past few years, are expected to become more aggressive in planning their local capacity expansions in response to the US-China trade tensions.While SEMI has forecast that the worldwide semiconductor equipment market will decline in 2019, demand for semiconductor equipment from Taiwan is expected to rise back to US$11.4 billion in 2019, coming close to that from South Korea and China. In 2018, China had the second largest semiconductor equipment market, behind only South Korea. But China's demand for semiconductor equipment is estimated to slip from 2018's US$12.2 billion to US$11.96 billion in 2019 because of the US trade policies against China.(Note: This is part of a series of articles by Digitimes president Colley Hwang on the latest developments of the IT industry in the wake of the US-China trade war.)

EMS provider Qisda has disclosed it has seen 74% in improvement in production efficiency from adopting collaborative robots for production lines at its factory in northern Taiwan, with about 30 workers originally assigned for a production line reduced to 12-15 ones.Qisda said its production lines need to be adjusted quite often to cater to different specifications and sizes for diverse product models. To facilitate flexible adjustments, Qisda sid it began to deploy collaborative robots in 2016, with such robots collaborating with workers to reach flexibility in adjusting production lines.A large portion of collaborative robots are used in assembling, testing and packaging processes involving complicated work, Qisda noted. Collaborative robots equipped with machine vision and AI-based inspection are used in the testing process, and robotic arms are used in the packaging process in combination with AGVs (automated guided vehicles), Qisda indicated.The use of collaborative robots is in connection with MES (manufacturing execution system) and WMS (warehouse management system), Qisda added.With collaborative robots, the time taken to adjust a production line for different product models has been shortened from 30 minutes to less than three minutes, Qisda said.Making collaborative robots easy to operate by simplifying programming and optimizing user interfaces is key to boosting use of such robots, according to Taiwan-based collaborative robot maker Techman Robot. Techman has offered TM Plug & Play kits which enable users of its collective robots to quickly finish hardware/software setting to reduce part of cost for system integration.Qisda's production lines with collaborative robots and workersPhoto: Company

The top-5 notebook brands saw their combined shipments slip 14% on month in April, a performance stronger than that of the same month a year ago, as Chromebook demand from North America's education sector had picked up and replacement demand in the enterprise sectors in Europe and Asia remained robust.Lenovo was the largest brand in April, leapfrogging the previous number-one Hewlett-Packard (HP) thanks to its significant Chromebook shipments for procurement orders. The proportion of its orders to Taiwan-based makers also increased, according to Digitimes Research's findings.HP witnessed a nearly 40% on-month decline in April as the company had underperformed its competitors in the enterprise sector and was the worst performing vendor among the top-5.Dell, which also enjoyed high Chromebook shipments in April, only experienced a 1% on-month drop in shipments.The top-3 ODMs' combined shipments dipped 11% on month in April. Of the three makers, Wistron had the smallest on-month decline of 4% in the month, while the leading maker Compal Electronics saw its shipment gap with Quanta Computer significantly widen in April due to more orders from Lenovo.

The global IC packaging and testing market had a scale of US$28 billion in 2018 with the top-10 players commanding a combined 84% share. Three of the top-10 players are based in China. Of the four sectors in China's semiconductor industry, packaging and testing is the one with technologies closest to the worldwide level. This is because Jiangsu Changjiang Electronics Technology began its acquisition strategy early. Jiangsu Changjiang currently generates revenues of around US$3.64 billion a year, holding a global market share of 13%.Joining Jiangsu Changjiang in the global top-10 are Tongfu Microelectronics and Tianshui Huatian Technology. The three of them commanded over 20% of the worldwide packaging and testing orders.At the moment, Taiwan players are still the most competitive in the packaging and testing field. Taiwan-based Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ASE), SPIL, Powertech Technology (PTI), King Yuan Electronics (KYEC) and Chipbond are all top-10 players. The five firms together are able to satisfy 44% of worldwide packaging and testing demand, and together with other Taiwan-based non-top-10 players such as Orient Semiconductor Electronics and Sigurd Microelectronics, they have controlled over half of the global packaging and testing market for the past 10 years.Taiwan players' control of the back-end process of the semiconductor industry, plus Taiwan's strength in IC distribution, forms a firm support for the competitiveness of Taiwan's IC ecosystem.(Note: This is part of a series of articles by Digitimes president Colley Hwang on the latest developments of the IT industry in the wake of the US-China trade war.)

Collaborative robots (cobots) are emerging as key automation tool in the Industry 4.0 era and enjoy greater growth potentials than traditional industrial robots, as they are flexible, lightweight and easy to program and move, and can better cater to the automation needs of small- and medium-size enterprises (SMEs), especially those engaged in electronics assembly.Unlike traditional industrial robots, which perform their work in physically isolated places, cobots come into direct contact with their human colleagues for man-machine collaborative operation. Cobots already replaced traditional industrial robots to take center stage at the 2019 Hannover Messe held in early April in Germany.According to the 2018 World Robotics Report released by the International Federation of Robotics (IFR), cobots will see the fastest growth in the future global robot market, with the largest growth momentum to come from the electronics manufacturing sector.This is because flexible production is increasingly needed by manufacturers, and the high mobility and agility of cobots can facilitate their flexible production deployments.To meet the robust market demand, Denmark-based Universal Robots (UR) has rolled out three different cobot sizes with payloads of 3kg, 5kg and 10 kg, which can be easily integrated into existing production environment. The company has sold over 34,000 cobots around the world that are used in thousands of production environments.UR's Greater China Region head BK Su noted that his company hopes to develop customized DIY collaborative robotic arms based on client-conceived ideas about key aspects ranging from assembly to execution command, so as to further boost the market acceptability for robotic arms.Taiwan's Techman Robot, a subsidiary of Quanta Computer, now offers a variety of cobots available in mobile, regular, medium and high payload series, applicable to electronics, food, automobile, semiconductor and panel manufacturing sectors. The firm's cobots can be integrated with pallets into a mobile robotic workstation.