Amazon Web Services (AWS) has kept enhancing its Greengrass software to extend its cloud capabilities to local devices, and the latest development is that the software can be incorporated into network attached storage (NAS) equipment, allowing NAS to conduct edge computing and AI analysis beyond its storage function to become the core of AI-based terminal devices.At the AWS Summit Taipei held in late June, the web service giant invited its Taiwan partner QNAP Systems, a NAS specialist, to demonstrate the performance of NAS fitted with Greengrass.Anderson Cheng, QNAP's IoT business development manager, said that as an indispensable data storage equipment for enterprises, NAS can also directly handle data computing and processing after incorporating the AWS Greengrass software.Citing an example to illustrate the point, Cheng said that after the FarmBoT - a device developed by Taiwan's FarmBoT Taiwan User Group (FBTUG) to perform automatic monitoring at farmlands - sends photo images to NAS, the fitted Greengrass software can exercise its image recognition function to locate and eradicate weeds while also monitoring the growth process of plants.Cheng disclosed that QNAP's cooperation with AWS initially focused on meeting network storage demand, and is now gradually expanded to cover IoT services and integration with public cloud platforms.Anderson Cheng, QNAP's IoT business development managerPhoto: AWS

Taiwan-based IPC and automation solutions specialist Advantech is taking a big stride forward in promoting the combination of IoT and smart healthcare in the form of SRP (solution-ready package) through cooperating with business partners.Advantech has set up a joint venture, i-Link IoMT, with i-Link and FYC Intelligent Engineering, seeking to complete system integration associated with smart healthcare solutions.Eric Huang, vice president of i-Link IoMT, said the joint venture will design smart healthcare products from the perspectives of users including patients, their family members, doctors and nurses, so as to effectively boost the usage convenience of the products and the satisfaction of patients and families.Huang continued that at smart nursing stations, for instance, nurses will be provided with electronic white boards, control devices, mobile medication carts, and mobile nursing devices, while smart wards will be fitted with patient infotainment terminals (PIT), digital bedside cards, and physiological measuring instruments that can instantly display patient information.As a realization of the firm's standard SRP solution, Huang stressed, all the patients can get whatever information they need, including surrounding environments of the hospital and instructions on in-hospital care services, so as to effectively ease patients' sense of insecurity.Advantech has also decided to build a complete set of IIoT (industrial IoT) supply chain in the next decade, according to company chairman KC Liu.Liu said that Taiwan industries are likely to play a crucial role in the IIoT supply chains that are set to develop rapidly in the coming 15 years, prompting Advantech to move to develop a preemptive presence in the sector.Eric Huang, vice president of i-Link IoMTPhoto: Vega Chiu, Digitimes, July 2018

Hsinchu Science Park Bureau (HSPB) is actively pushing forward the Taiwan government's New Southbound Policy, endeavoring to engage efforts across the industry, government, academics and research institutes as well as its sister industrial parks in India in an attempt to help HSP-based companies tap into the India market. As part of such efforts, HSPB recently conducted a panel discussion for a close examination and exchange of views on how Taiwan businesses can expand into India. Experts taking part in the event highlighted that the government should strengthen efforts toward promoting Taiwan's image to give Taiwan businesses a leg-up.The moderator, Wayne Wang, director general, HSPB, commented that among the New Southbound Policy's target countries, India is of strategic importance in terms of demographics and business opportunities. Amid ever-changing market dynamics, Taiwan has to re-think how to respond to evolving conditions. The government hopes the experts' opinions will help its New Southbound Policy generate more positive outcomes.Engaging Indian talent and strengthening connectionsMediaTek advisor Grant Kuo, in his opening speech, indicated that MediaTek made a long-term commitment to its operations in emerging markets when the company appointed him as the managing director of MediaTek India 12 years ago. India has a young population, 60% of which is under 25 years old. The country also holds high expectations toward collaborations with Taiwan. The India government has been working with MediaTek to train mobile phone design engineers in the country.Taiwan needs more high-tech talent and also Indians as long-term partners. Kuo suggests that the Taiwan government provide education opportunities to Indian engineers through National Chiao Tung University (NCTU) and National Tsing Hua University (NTHU) with strong HSP connections. They can offer scholarships to not only Indian graduate students but also college juniors and seniors. When companies hire these students, they can pay recruitment fees to the government, which can then be used to fund the scholarships. This way, government funding is utilized for maximum benefits.Furthermore, as Indian engineers have different levels of competence, Taiwan should aim to recruit graduates from tier-1 or tier-2 technological institutes in India. It may be difficult for Taiwan to attract first-rate college graduates from world-class enterprises such as Google, Microsoft and Amazon but at least the focus should be on engineers on the next level. If the Taiwan government can put in more efforts toward promoting national image, it will be much easier for Taiwan-based companies to recruit talent.In addition, the Indian mobile phone market may not be constantly evolving but has indeed shown significant changes in recent years. Taiwan businesses looking to stay on top of local market dynamics should try to gain insight firsthand. However, any Taiwan-based vendor making a visit to India alone will only scratch the surface. If HSP with international prestige can serve as a platform, Taiwan businesses making visits to India should be able to receive a warm welcome.India market is changing and China has successfully penetrated the marketDigitimes president Colley Hwang, having made more than a dozen trips to India since 1992, gave a suggestion as to the role HSP can play. Two years ago, the No. 1 mobile phone brand in the India market was Samsung, and Micromax was the leading local brand. Now China-based Xiaomi has overtaken Samsung as the market leader. According to IDC, Xiaomi holds the largest share, 30%, of the India smartphone market in terms of first-quarter 2018 sales, followed by Samsung's 25%. None of the top five smartphone vendors is a local Indian brand. Aside from Xiaomi, smartphones from China-based vendors including Vivo, Oppo and Huawei are everywhere in India, pushing local brands such as Micromax and Lava to the low-cost feature phone segment. Most of them are no longer able to compete with China-based phone makers with the exception of Reliance, barely keeping its place by bundling low-cost phones with telecom services.When Huang visited India two years ago, he met with RS Sharma and Ajai Kumar, two deputy secretaries of Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and advised them if India did not establish a clear policy to lead the development of its local mobile phone industry, its hands would be tied when China-made phones flooded the India market. Unfortunately, Hwang was right. Now Taiwan-based mobile phone OEM and component makers are coming to India either at the request of Apple or largely for the purpose of working with China-based phone makers.According to Allied Association for Science Park Industries secretary general Zhi-Yuan Chang, Taiwan businesses should first set a clear strategy before expanding into India. They need to have a specific purpose - to tap into the India market, to make investments or to work with partners. As most Taiwan businesses operate at a limited scale, they prefer to expand overseas with multiple partners rather than do so independently. This is the reason that the association has established a cross-border investment committee in hopes to help its members with overseas endeavors.NCTU professor Ching-Yao Huang noted the Modi administration has proposed 100 smart city projects, but smart city plans entail a lot of local factors. The Indian students currently studying at NCTU and NTHU will greatly facilitate Taiwan businesses' India market expansion. Taiwan should try to provide them with ample industry information so that they can form a strong bond with the Taiwan industry.With the government leading the way, HSP creates a platform linking businesses to IndiaHuang added that government agencies should establish a common agenda exploring business opportunities in India. Due to its diverse cultures and federal system, it is not easy for Taiwan-based companies to have an in-depth understanding of the intricate situations of the India market. HSP should lead the way by serving as a marketing platform on which HSP-based vendors can sell their products and provide their services.The government's operation toward the India market should start with building up Taiwan's image. HSP can work on promoting the Taiwan high-tech industry as the best partner to India's supply chain. With a positive national image, all undertakings such as talent recruitment, component marketing and consulting services can be more efficient.Taiwan is undoubtedly India's best partner when it looks to build a handset-centered ecosystem. It is just that both Taiwan and India are taking a wait-and-see attitude. India thinks it is Taiwan's loss if it does not make efforts to tap into India's massive market and the efforts should not be on India's part. However, to Taiwan businesses operating on narrow profit margins, although they do not have to haggle over every penny, they certainly will not risk going into deals without seeing some profit potential. As such, the best way to approach the India market is for the Taiwan government to lead the way by, for example, sponsoring annual conferences of industry organizations such as India Electronics and Semiconductor Association (IESA), Indian Cellular Association (ICA) and Electronic Industries Association of India (ELCINA) or working with renowned local media to keep promoting the Taiwan electronics industry. Such efforts should be aimed to deepen Taiwan businesses' market penetration and attract Indian vendors to proactively seek partnerships. In sum, the steps to Taiwan's Indian operations should be in this order: marketing, selling and manufacturing. That is, before the manufacturing industry makes its move, marketing efforts toward promoting the country and the industry should go first.Both Huang and Kuo emphasized that as India is a large country, businesses should appoint competent and experienced leaders - not just any managers - to locally head their Indian operations. The Taiwan government, looking to reach deep into overseas markets within the scope of its New Southbound Policy, has to undertake long-term planning and foster independent leaders with regional market expertise. Alternatively, government agencies such as Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) and Taipei Economic and Cultural Center in India can focus on building local connections and collaborate with specialists delegated by professional institutes in Taiwan for field visits to India to jointly work toward effective local market operations in the long run.To help Taiwan businesses with their Indian market operations, HSPB has joined forces with KPMG and Century Development Corporation (CDC) to push forward New Southbound Policy work. CDC has kicked off the construction of an industrial park project near Bengaluru Airport. KPMG, engaging in close collaborations with both Taiwan and India governments, is prepared to offer professional consultation on complex Indian laws, said Winston Yu, chairman of KPMG.Foraying into India: act now or later?Narendra Modi and his party BJP were able to win the first electoral majority for a single party in three decades partly because he promised to reach a challenging goal in the previous Indian national election. Four years later, BJP thinks it has delivered a generally satisfactory 7%-8% economic growth. During the four-year term, the Modi administration has undertaken banking and tax reforms as well as road and rail infrastructure constructions, which has contributed to India's steady economic growth. However, according to World Bank's latest Doing Business (DB) Report, India only ranks 100 among 190 countries assessed by the DB team based on the ease of doing business in the country. With less than 12 months to go until the next general election, the question is whether Modi is ready to take on the next challenge.Furthermore, India's GDP expanded at 7.7% in first-quarter 2018. Everyone realizes that foreign businesses and investments are instrumental to accelerating economic growth and thereby engaging the younger generation entering the workforce and expanding the middle class population. India received a fairly large sum of US$40 billion in foreign investments for the year 2017. Although its 7%-8% GDP growth is outstanding in comparison to many other countries, it is hardly satisfactory considering India's massive population and the pressure from China.Based on 2017 World Bank data, India's per capita income at US$1,709 is running far behind China's at US$8,123. Although people generally think movement of goods has become easier now, critics say that labor reforms by the Modi administration make it difficult for enterprises to lay off employees and the discontinuation of two rupee banknotes at year-end 2016 was a banking reform measure that did nothing more than harassing people and disrupting capital flow. In addition to the problem of widening current account deficit, there is also a plethora of things to tackle, which the India government will not be able to resolve in a short period of time. As such, Taiwan businesses making a foray into India will inevitably sustain loss and inefficiency in the beginning. Should they look at things in the long run and take early action or should they wait till everything is in place and make their move?An Indian delegation visiting HSP in 2016.Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad engaging in exchanges with HSP, Central Taiwan Science Park and National Yunlin University of Science and Technology. HSPB director general Wayne Wang is at the right.An HSP delegation attending Asian Science Park Association (ASPA) 2016 in Hyderabad.HSPB deputy director general Tseng-Ju Hsu (third from the right) visiting India in 2018 to share views with industry representatives.Photos: HSPB

Global shipments of CMOS as well as CCD image sensors will exceed US$15 billion in value in 2020, Digitimes Research estimates. The shipment value increased by over 15% on year to US$12.2 billion in 2017.Industry leader Sony will be aggressively expanding its presence in the automotive segment in 2018, while encountering a slowdown in demand for smartphones, Digitimes Research believes.Sony's CMOS image sensor (CIS) market share reached as high as 45% in both 2016 and 2017, thanks to its shipments to Apple. Nevertheless, Sony's share of the automotive CIS segment was only 9% in 2017.Sony with its automotive CIS has cut into the supply chain of Toyota, and will be expanding its client base in the field to include Bosch, Nissan and Hyundai this year.

Taiwan's national development and financial supervision authorities have announced policy support for turning the country into a global blockchain industry hub, and a separation principle will be adopted in supervising the blockchain and digital currency operations to effectively boost Taiwan's competitiveness in achieving the goal.At the 2018 Asia Blockchain Summit held in Taipei July 2, both National Development Council (NDC) minister Chen Mei-ling and Financial Supervision Commission (FSC) chairman Wellington Koo highlighted Taiwan's long-term support for the development of blockchain technologies and shared the view that blockchain as key digital transformation infrastructure will drive the fourth industrial revolution.Speaking at a gathering of over 2,500 blockchain technology specialists and investors from around the world, Chen said that blockchain applications have been expanded from cryptocurrencies to non-financial areas such as smart cities, industry supply chains, energy management, digital entertainment and public management, prompting governments of many countries to enforce strategies to better utilize digital bonus generated by blockchain technologies and to nip potential risks in the bud.Good infrastructure for blockchain developmentChen said that while pursuing digital economy and transformation, the government in Taiwan will encourage the development of the blockchain industry and help businesses incorporate blockchain technologies to accelerate industrial upgrades.She stressed that with sufficient ICT talent supply and comprehensive ICT supply chains, Taiwan boasts very good infrastructure for the development of blockchain technologies and applications, adding that Taiwan tech startups have launched a variety of innovative blockchain-based solutions, including those for agriculture produce traceability system, music copyrights management, hotel management system, and green power generation and storage.Besides using angel investment funds to support the development of optimized blockchain ecosystems and allowing expanded applications of open data and big data for industrial uses, Chen continued, the NDC will join forces with Asia Blockchain Alliance to develop new blockchain application fields, aiming to help private businesses roll out turnkey solutions for exports and realize the vision of Taiwan as a global blockchain development center.FinTech applicationsFor his part, Koo said that the FSC has been supporting the development of FinTech and will encourage Taiwan financial firms to incorporate blockchain technologies into financial services to create new service values and upgrade service efficiency.Koo stressed that as long as innovation risks can be well controlled and managed, the FSC will allow maximum space for FinTech applications, so as to facilitate the establishment of Taiwan as a solid base for innovations.He also disclosed that the FSC will move to relax related restrictions to create friendly environments for electronics payment operations, and will revise related rules and regulations to facilitate the establishment of two pure online banks.Meanwhile, lawmakers YJ Hsu and WJ Yu also revealed at the summit that they will jointly promote the establishment of a blockchain industry self-discipline alliance and push for currency/blockchain separation campaign to attract global blockchain investors to set up operations in Taiwan and create new economic growth momentum.2018 Asia Blockchain Summit in TaipeiPhoto: Michael Lee, Digitimes, July 2018

Shipments of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) devices totaled about 300,000 units in the Japan market in 2017, Digitimes Research has estimated.For the next five years from 2018-2022, Japan's VR/AR device market is expected to grow a CAGR of 33.5%, which will be lower than the growth paces in the US and Europe, Digitimes Research estimates.While related VR/AR applications have been seen in a number of sectors including traveling, retailing, manufacturing and medical treatments, user's acknowledgement and experience on VR/AR among the public in Japan still derive mainly from digital gaming.Although the standalone VR devices have been introduced into the Japan market since May 2018, it remains to be seen if related VR/AR vendors would be able to attract more patronage from the non-gaming sector.The adoption of VR/AR applications by enterprises in Japan remains low although vendors such as NEC and Fujitsu have released commercial VR/AR solutions with support of facilities, HMDs, computers and simulated content for applications including surveillance, firefighting, logistics and maintenance. Factors including pricing and comfortability will be crucial for Japan-based enterprises to decide whether to adopt AR/VR applications, Digitimes Research believes.

Taiwan's leading IPC maker Nexcom International has, through its subsidiary AIoT Cloud, teamed up with 16 domestic universities and research labs to carry out a "robotics" education program in a bid to effectively cultivate AI-based robotic talent to better serve industrial needs, making it the first industry player to do so, according to YC Shen, director of AIoT Cloud's business department.Shen said that robotics is a cross-domain science, covering mechanics, automation control, information technology and electrical engineering, but there have been no robotics departments at universities.Accordingly, Shen continued, his company will collaborate with local universities and labs to enforce the "robotics" education program, including National Tsing Hua University, National Chiao Tung University and National Cheng Kung University, among others, as well as research labs at Central Taiwan Science Park (CTSP) and Southern Taiwan Science Park (STSP). Under the program, robotic engineers from the industry sector will be invited to foster seed teachers, which, if certified, will teach students at robotics courses.Shen stressed that the courses will be open not only to students at the universities, but also to startups, individual "makers" and businesses interested in developing robots. The courses will comprise fundamental robotics knowledge, structural types, and a variety of design and development aspects including kinematics, control technology, communication technology, vision incorporation, and practical applications.Smart manufacturingShen said that robots will play a crucial role in the future smart manufacturing era, incorporating massive AI elements and diverse IoT technologies, such as sensing capabilities and vision and hearing, and therefore both robot suppliers and end users should be well prepared for upcoming disruptive designs in future robots.Meanwhile, YT Chen, robotic product manager at Nexcom International, said Taiwan's electronics industry is very suitable for incorporating robots, reasoning that contract production of 3C products in Taiwan usually requires intensive labor to handle the assembly of a large variety of small parts and components, but the shrinking demographic dividends in the country will make robots rise as best helpers.At the moment, Epson's 6-arm robots are mostly shipped to the electronics industry in Taiwan, according to industry sources.The sources said that future robots will feature low loading capacity, collaborative operation, and smart and accurate movement enabled by 3D sensors. Beyond the electronics sector, they continued, traditional labor-intensive manufacturing industries and food processing industry will also be suitable for mass incorporation of robots.YC Shen, AIoT Cloud's business department directorPhoto: Company

Huawei has recently announced in Bangkok, Thailand its plan to invest US$81 million over the next three years to help foster a local ICT ecosystem. The move shed light on the company's strategy to expand into ASEAN markets and create a digital economy ecosystem. Amid the upcoming 5G era, many Taiwan-based ICT businesses are eager to build digital ecosystems and can learn from the aspiration and vision shown in Huawei's recent strategy.Huawei's investment plan in Southeast Asia will focus on building OpenLabs, enabling cloud developers and cultivating ICT talent in the region. The intricate planning behind Huawei's move to beat competitors to 5G IoT opportunities in northern ASEAN member states is particularly of interest. Why did Huawei choose Thailand? What was the reasoning behind this strategy?The speech given by Huawei's rotating chairman Ping Guo at the fourth Annual Huawei Asia-Pacific Innovation Day, co-hosted by the National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA) of Thailand and Huawei, provided an insight into the company's strategy to leverage Thailand to create a 5G digital ecosystem in Southeast Asia markets with different languages, cultures, demographics and infrastructures.With maturing IoT, cloud computing, data analytics, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning technologies, increasing semiconductor processing power and decreasing data storage costs, the businesses that are able to combine these high-tech advances for platform or ecosystem developments will have the best chance to reap big benefits. However, is such a platform or ecosystem only good for e-commerce applications? It is clear that Huawei holds a different view.What Huawei is promoting is no longer an Internet ecosystem but a digital ecosystem. According to an analyst who has been following Huawei for years, its NB-IoT technologies and cloud computing services have enabled water purification equipment providers to monitor filter condition, water meter suppliers to achieve smart meter reading, greenhouse shelving to have smart temperature, humidity and ventilation control and streetlights to have automatic brightness adjustment. Huawei has positioned itself to be an enabler of the IoT era.In agreement with Huawei's strategy, Thailand's deputy prime minister Somkid Jatusripitak said at the Huawei Asia-Pacific Innovation Day event that amid the country's efforts to transition toward digital economy, it is hoped that Huawei will help Thailand capture opportunities in 5G, NB-IoT, AI and big data analytics and accelerate Thailand's economic growth.Huawei selects Thailand as the center for expansion outward to northern ASEAN member statesWhy Thailand? A high population density plays a critical role in 5G and IoT developments while a high network speed is also important. Thailand has a population of 68 million people and 8.28 million of them live in Bangkok, which is expected to become a mega city with a more than 10 million population within five years, according to a Thai research institute.According to data released by the National Statistical Office of Thailand in 2017, 70% of people in Bangkok and 76% of people in the less developed northeastern region use smartphones and 90% of Internet users get online through their smartphones. Young people in Thailand are also heavy users of social media. Thailand has superior network infrastructure among Southeast Asia countries, only second to Singapore. According to American Internet broadband testing company Ookla, Thailand has an average network speed of 19.96Mbps, leading Vietnam (14.2Mbps), Cambodia (5.9Mbps), Brunei (5.51Mbps), Myanmar (5.0Mbps), Laos (4.5Mbps), Indonesia (4.3Mbps) and the Philippines (3.5Mbps).Why did the Thai government choose Huawei as a partner for its Thailand 4.0 initiative? Huawei has put in tremendous efforts and resources to present its technologies and interfaces in local languages. Thanks to such a high level of localization, Huawei is enthusiastically embraced by consumers and governments of the 10 ASEAN member states with diverse cultures and languages.Why is it important to obtain the local government's support? In a digital economy, it has become a major public concern over who has control of the data, what they will use the data for and where they will store the data. For this reason, the EU has implemented the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Southeast Asia countries including Indonesia and Vietnam have also begun to require that sensitive data such as banking and healthcare data be stored in servers located domestically. Accordingly, without the local government's trust and authorization, it is difficult to obtain the data needed for research and development.Platform economy must be a joint effortHuawei already elaborated on the digital ecosystem it intends to create at Huawei Connect 2016. In Bangkok, Guo mentioned again the Costa Rica ecosystem. That is, Huawei is committed to enabling an open and diverse digital ecosystem that is like the "Costa Rica ecosystem," allowing all stakeholders including partners and customers grow and prosper together. The number of new species in biodiversity-rich Costa Rica is increasing faster than in other ecosystems in the world. For example, wildlife diversity is growing 10 times faster in Costa Rica than in Hawaii.Guo clearly said that in the Internet era, digital economy was only beginning to take shape without a fully developed ecosystem concept so the build-up of ICT infrastructure and ICT security relied on supply chain vendors. However, as digital economy develops into an advanced stage, wherein it supports digitization and smartization of multiple industries, collaborations across sectors, borders and end devices become necessary. It is also imperative to have an open ecosystem as well as full support and engagement by governments around the world. Guo pointed out that IoT and digitization in all sectors including transportation, agriculture, tourism, education, industry, manufacturing and maritime entails more extensive, open and win-win cross-ecosystem collaborations. It can hardly be achieved by any individual company or vendor alone by itself.Due to its Chinese military background, Huawei has to deal with American and European governments' long-standing distrust but faces little such issue in Southeast Asia countries that have urgent needs for infrastructure investments and high-tech talent.Huawei is working with ecosystem partners including independent software vendors (ISV) as well as Call Voice, CDG and Tatung to keep bringing innovative solutions to reality. They have jointly developed industrial applications for specific use scenarios such as smart surveillance systems, advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) integrating control functions and smart grid as well as smart industrial park network. Huawei's OpenLab Bangkok has four laboratories working toward smart city, public safety and smart grid innovations, partnership projects and proof of concept (POC) testing.Huawei has seven OpenLab R&D centers around the world, which is a realization of the "Costa Rica ecosystem" concept. The establishment of the 7th OpenLab in Bangkok on June 1, 2017 has allowed Huawei to make its own ICT achievements available to customers and partners. OpenLab Bangkok can offer ICT training for 800 persons, ICT career certification for 500 persons and 150 items of POC testing every year. It also serves as Huawei's innovation accelerator, hosting 20 groups of ICT startups for on-site visit and exchange of opinions every year. Centering on Bangkok, Huawei is expanding its support for high-tech startup and talent incubation outward to other regions in Thailand and neighboring countries including Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar.In brief, in the times of digital economy, working alone will not lead to success. Huawei, already a dominant market leader, believes it will not be able to realize an IoT and digital ecosystem by itself. Neither can Taiwan-based companies.Huawei believes digital economy entails extensive, open and win-win collaborations across sectors, borders and end devicesPhoto: Digitimes file photo

For manufacturers seeking to achieve production automation with robotic arms, how to achieve collaborative operation between robots and peripheral automation equipment will be a more crucial task than incorporating robots into their production lines, and the task can be best handled through localized system integration service from robot suppliers or their cooperative partners, according to industry experts.YD Kuo, chairman of LNC Technology, an affiliate of industrial PC and automation solution specialist Advantech, said robot suppliers had better provide localized system integration services to help Taiwan customers solve related operating problems. Kuo said his company once helped a local company engaged in plastic injection molding business smoothen the operation of its robotic arms by installing image sensors on the robots, within just one week after getting a consent from the supplier of robots. He said the sensors can help the robots perform more accurate and precision object-grabbing operations.Kuo continued that dedicated to developing diverse automation control systems including those for lathes, milling machines, grinding machines, and plastics injection molding machines, LNC has also helped a local maker of bicycle parts address the frequent collisions between robot arms and lathes seen on the production lines due to poor coordination.Peter Peng, director of Robotics Automation Business Department of Industrial Automation Business Goup at Delta Electronics, also said that most manufacturers in Taiwan usually demand robotics automation solutions that can cater to their production process, guarantee fast investment returns and boast a long life cycle to support follow-up changes.But the real engineering task based on customer requirements is not easy to do, Peng said, adding that a communication platform between robot suppliers and customers should therefore be established first with the support of related software programs, so that both sides can simulate equipment, systems and production flows on an experimental basis and then work out the optimal robotics automation solutions.

Sales in the global semiconductor-grade silicon wafer market are forecast to rise over 20% in 2018, after surging 20.8% in 2017, thanks to a continued rally in silicon wafer prices, according to Digitimes Research.The average selling price (ASP) per square inch of silicon wafers came to US$0.86 in the first quarter of 2018 reaching the highest since 2013, said Digitimes Research. The ASP is expected to reach US$1 at the end of 2019, approaching the 2009-2011 level.With silicon wafer ASPs looking promising, suppliers are set to enjoy profit growth over the next several years, Digitimes Research indicated.Top silicon wafer company Shin-Etsu saw its operating margin climb to 32.2% in the first quarter of 2018, up from 31.2% in the prior quarter and 24.7% a year earlier, while second-ranked Sumco's operating margin grew 6.4pp sequentially and 11.9pp on year to 25.3%. Shih-Etsu and Sumco collectively hold a more than 50% share of the global silicon wafer market.Taiwan-based GlobalWafers, the world's third-largest silicon wafer supplier, saw its operating margin swing to 10.1% in the first quarter of 2017 from negative 3.7% in the fourth quarter of 2016. GlobalWafers' operating margin continued its rally reaching 28.2% in the first quarter of 2018.The supply of silicon wafers particularly that of 8- and 12-inch ones will remain tight for at least one to two years, according to Digitimes Research. Whether the tight supply will persist after 2020 will very much depend on the demand side. Industrial, IoT and automotive applications will play major drivers of demand for 8-inch wafers, while demand for 12-inch wafers will come from mainly the cloud storage and smartphone segments.