Taiwan: HP and Lenovo to build up own brand stores.

WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesús.

Taiwan: HP and Lenovo to build up own brand stores.

Seeing Apple achieving success by promoting its products with its Apple Stores, Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Lenovo are both aggressively aiming to build up their own brand stores in Taiwan, according to sources from the retail channel.

Lenovo currently has about five own-brand stores in Taiwan, mainly in the two major metropolitan cities Taipei and Kaohsiung and the company is reportedly considering to greatly increase the number of its brand stores in Asia region to 1,000. Meanwhile, HP is also establishing a full-service center in Taipei, combining product maintenance service with product exhibition in one location and the center is the HP's eighth full-service center in the Asia Pacific region.

The sources also pointed out that unlike the traditional IT mall, a brand store can greatly enhance the brand image through decoration and allow the sales to have better communication opportunity with consumers.

In the fourth quarter of 2011, Apple's revenues from the Apple Store grew 42.6% on year to US$17.08 million, accounting for 13.2% of the company's total revenues.

Partnership Foxconn/Sharp to target Apple orders. Apple TV ?

WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesús.

Partnership Foxconn/Sharp to target Apple orders. Apple TV ?

Sharp has announced a strategic alliance with Foxconn (Hon Hai). 

Through third-party allotment, four Foxconn subsidiaries will obtain an about 9.88% stake and become the largest shareholder of Sharp. Foxconn will also hold shares in Sharp Display Products (SDP), a joint venture of Sharp and Sony producing large-size panels and modules.

Sharp indicated that Foxconn will procure panels and related modules from Sharp's 10G plant in Sakai, Japan. The procurement will keep the 10G plant at high capacity utilization.

Sharp and Foxconn are suppliers of Apple. Hence this cooperation may be aimed at obtaining orders for Apple TVs. Apple may want to use Sharp's technology to produce Indium Gallium Zinc Oxide (IGZO) panels for Apple TVs.

Foxconn has been investing in Taiwan-based LCD panel maker Chimei Innolux (CMI). The market believes the cooperation between Foxconn and Sharp will not benefit CMI. Sharp has been replacing CMI as the panel supplier for Apple's iPads, hence cooperating with Sharp seems more beneficial to Foxconn.