More Made in Taiwan

It’s been a while since I visited the topic of Taiwan’s pivotal role in the global technology supply chain. So, it’s long overdue for some not-so-shameless plugging of news involving my favorite island country’s technology industry and the impact they’ve had on the technology space:

• HTC shipped the first mobile phone to run Google’s Android mobile phone operating system
• Taiwanese OEMs/ODMs stormed the PC space with new netbook/nettop form factors which have been the only PC segment to survive the downturn
• Taiwanese ODMs are set to completely change the PC landscape again with new computer designs based on ARM chips (not the traditional x86 processors which Intel/AMD make) like the QBook
• The Taiwanese government is actively being courted by Elpida (Japanese memory manufacturer) and Micron (US memory manufacturer), the two candidates who seek to gain control over Taiwan Memory Corporation, the Taiwanese DRAM manufacturer who will consolidate all of Taiwan’s failing DRAM players
• TSMC, the world’s largest and most profitable and advanced semiconductor foundry, not only pushed 40nm process technology into volume production (note: even Intel is still currently only at 45nm process technology), but is now the first partner Intel has ever entrusted with its processor technology
• Despite the recession destroying the profitability of pretty much the entire semiconductor industry, Taiwanese superstar semiconductor firm Mediatek is expecting sales in Q1 2009 to be 8-13% larger than Q4 2008 (versus the previously anticipated 8-16% decline) and TSMC is projecting that their final Q1 profit margin may be between –2 and 0% (up from the –19 to –15% previously anticipated)
• VIA, one of three companies in the world with the license to produce x86 PC chips, has unveiled its new netbook processor which, unlike Intel’s Atom chips, can actually play 1080p video
• Given the many OEMs/ODMs in Taiwan working on Android devices, Google plans to open an Android development center in Taiwan

Hopefully a small taste of the reason why so many tech analysts watch the Taiwanese industry so carefully.

(Image Credit)