The new challenge for Taiwanese manufacturers: expert

TAIPEI (CNA) -- Taiwanese high-tech manufacturers will need to identify the "right" products to produce if they are to succeed in a market where electronic devices continue to proliferate, a technology observer said Wednesday.

Kevin Kelly, a former editor of the Whole Earth Catalog and co-founder of Wired magazine, said that Taiwanese manufacturers depending on Apple Inc. or Google Inc. products will see increasing species of devices in the near term, helping them to maintain growth.
"There will be more devices made in five years, more kinds of devices and more quantities. So people who make these devices will have no shortage of opportunities," Kelly said at a media briefing.
He predicted, however, that technology would become more specific and more specialized based on the rising demand for such devices and that the trend would affect manufacturers.
"I think that it will become easier and easier to make things, and it will become more and more difficult to decide what to make," Kelly said.
"Technology allows us to make anything we can imagine, but people just don't buy anything. They only want certain things." "So the process of designing and coming up with something that is worth making becomes more difficult, and I think that's a real challenge for Taiwanese manufacturers," he noted.
Known as a "digital prophet," Kelly was invited by the Taipei-based Business Today magazine to deliver a speech in Taiwan Wednesday afternoon.
Following the speech, he was to participate in a panel discussion with Asustek Computer Inc. Chairman Jonney Shih and Minister without Portfolio Simon Chang on the topic "Discover the Next 1,000 Days of Digital Life."
[Description of Source: Taipei Central News Agency in English -- "Central News Agency (CNA)," Taiwan's major state-run press agency; generally favors ruling administration in its coverage of domestic and international affairs; URL: http://www.cna.com.tw]

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