PC demand has been inadvertently propelled by the coronavirus pandemic, but some market observers are concerned that the PC market may start seeing a slowdown in May, followed by a sharp falls in the third quarter. But some makers in the supply chain are more optimistic, such as cooling module solution supplier Auras, which believes its shipments to the notebook segment will remain strong in third-quarter 2020. Memory backend firm Powertech is also reporting clear order visibility through the third quarter, and is expecting sales to hit a record in 2020.PC, CE chip demand may disappoint in 3Q20: Chip demand for PCs and consumer electronics devices may disappoint in the third quarter of 2020 despite the period being a traditional peak season for the two sectors, thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, according to industry sources.Auras expects orders for notebook cooling solutions to remain strong in 3Q20: Taiwan-based Auras so far only has visibility until the end of June for it notebook cooling module orders, but the company still expects the shipment momentum to continue in the third quarter with brand clients' releases of new products, according to company chairman Steve Lin.Backend firm PTI poised to challenge new revenue records in 2020: Memory backend specialist Powertech Technology (PTI) has seen clear order visibility through the third quarter of 2020 and may have a chance to end the year with record revenues as long as the coronavirus outbreak can stay controllable in the months ahead, according to company executives.

The Taiwanese government is stepping up efforts to help local startups hit by the coronavirus pandemic, including financial assistance.The National Development Council (NDC) has announced it will purchase preferred stocks from Taiwan's startups until October 5, while the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) will help them plan their participation at global startup exhibitions to connect them with international capital after the pandemic is put under control.NDC minister Mei-ling Chen pointed out many startups have already conveyed to the government their financial difficulties arising from the outbreak soon after the Lunar New Year holidays in late January and the situation is growing worse with the pandemic spreading fast.Some market observers have pointed out that global investments in startups had already weakened before the holiday period. WeWork, a commercial real estate company that provides shared workspaces and supported by Softbank Group and JPMorgan Chase, called off its IPO scheduled in September 2019, a sign of a downturn for the international investments in entrepreneurship.Research firms also have also noted that Asia only had 23 startups with market values of over US$1 billion in 2019, a sharp drop from 2018's 42.Research firm CB Insights' figures also show that the global startup investment market had a value of around US$77 billion in the first quarter of 2020, down over 12% on year, while Asia had the sharpest drop of nearly 35%.Taiwan's MOST helps bridge startups with international capitalPhoto: Digitimes file photo

Denmark-based startup BluSense Diagnostics, with major investments from Taiwanese companies, has developed a diagnostic kit that can test COVID-19 in 12 minutes, according to Taiwan's Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST).BluSense's kit offers high accuracy, portability and easy operation: Only one drop of blood sample is required from the test subject, and no pretreatment such as centrifugation is required, MOST said, adding that test results can be obtained within 12 minutes.BluSense completed the development of COVID-19 serology test cartridge (ViroTrack COVID-19 IgM / IgG) in March 2020 with the support from Taiwan-based Ten-Chen Medical Group (TCMG) to optimize the detection system, according to MOST. Last week, BluSense had a preliminary clinical verification performed at Hvidovre Hospital in Denmark, with a sensitivity of up to 90%.BluSense, established in 2014, focuses on the detection of infectious diseases. Its Dengue Acute System has obtained the EU CE.The startup has received support from MOST's Germination Program, which helps academics turn their innovations into products in the market.Taiwan-based companies, TaiAn Technologies and Quanta Storage, are main shareholders of BluSense. BluSense's biotech R&D base is located in Copenhagen, Denmark, while the hardware and software center and equipment production are located in Taoyuan, Taiwan.BluSense's BluBox portable medical detection platform is based on a Blu-ray Disc drive, with micro-channel biological detection disc ViroTrack, which is convenient to carry and operate at airports, ports and in other frontline epidemic prevention situations, MOST said.

Undeterred by the coronavirus impacts and the cancellation of MWC 2020, China-based smartphone vendors were keen to launch their flagship 5G-enabled models online in the first quarter of 2020 in order to make preemptive presence in the segment, according to Digitimes Research.In spite of their high specs, including Qualcomm's latest mobile CPUs, high resolution displays with a refresh rate of over 90Hz and a touch sampling rate of over 120Hz, LPDDR 5 memory and UFS 3.0 flash, those 5G phones are mostly priced between CNY3,500 (US$494) and CNY4,500, as vendors are aiming at ramping up market share initially, Digitimes Research has found.China's handset players are expected to roll out diverse 5G models for the mid-range segment in the second quarter as mobile chip vendors have released more mid-tier 5G solutions for handset makers to choose from, helping them reduce overall production cost.Digitimes Research believes that there is the possibility of seeing China's handset makers launch 5G models priced below CNY2,000 in the third quarter of 2020.

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

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.

Global top-5 notebook brands saw their combined shipments nosedive nearly 40% on month and 38% on year in February as the notebook supply chain, which has over 90% of poduction capacity in China, was seriously disrupted in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, according to Digitimes Research.Among the global top-5 brands, only Dell and Lenovo shipped over one million notebooks in February. Dell, which had its ODM partners keep some workers at plants to work during the Lunar New Year holidays, had an on-month shipment decline only larger than those of Lenovo and Asustek, and was the largest brand worldwide for the second consecutive month in February, Digitimes Research's numbers show.Lenovo's in-house production lines in Hefei achieved a production resumption rate of nearly 60% in February, allowing its shipment to be above par.Hewlett-Packard (HP), without arranging production during the Lunar New Year break and having most of its production lines in China's Chongqing, where rules for production resumption are stricter than other places, experienced an over 50% on-month decline in February shipments.The top-3 ODMs suffered an on-month decline of 42% in their combined shipments in February. Quanta had a larger on-month drop than the other two as its production resumption was much slower than its fellow makers.Although ODMs' capacity is likely to be restored fast in March, tight supply of components resulting from labor shortages at related makers are expected to become an issue for notebook makers.

Taiwan-based automation solution developer Solomon has cooperated with Denmark-based Mobile Industrial Robots (MiR) to release disinfection robots that could help prevent the spread of viruses, while Taiwan-based Papago has also devoted efforts to developing a facial recognition system that can identify mask-wearing people.Solomon is currently offering two disinfection robots with one using UVC and the other a sterilizing atomizer. Solomon's sensor-equipped UVC disinfection robot can avoid coming into contact with people and prevent UVC from causing harm to human bodies.The robot with sterilizing atomizer can atomize and spread disinfectant as high as two meters for an effective coverage.Both robots are based on MiR's autonomous mobile robot (AMR) system and are able to conduct disinfection after working hours or in unmanned environments. Solomon is currently in talks with several hospitals for shipments.Papago has seen increased inquiries for its Face8 facial recognition system in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. The system is able to identify a person's face even with a surgical mask on and can be used on many occasions. The company is now looking to expand its penetration with customized Face8 solutions.Papago saw consolidated revenues reach NT$1.85 million (US$60,920) in February down 41.57% on year with combined sales for the first two months of 2020 arriving at NT$4.22 million, down 63.61% on year.Solomon disinfection robotPhoto: Company