Posted on 03/30/2022 5:02:21 PM PDT by FarCenter
HSINCHU, Taiwan -- Consumer electronics demand is showing signs of slowing amid geopolitical uncertainties and COVID-related lockdowns in China, the chairman of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. said on Wednesday.
The slowdown is emerging in areas "such as smartphones, PCs, and TVs, especially in China, the biggest consumer market," TSMC Chairman Mark Liu said.
A key Apple supplier, TSMC is the world's biggest contract chipmaker and a barometer of global electronics demand.
Liu also warned that the cost of components and materials are rising sharply, pushing up production costs for tech and chip companies.
"Such pressure could eventually be passed on to consumers," Liu said on the sidelines of an industry event where he was speaking in his capacity as chair of the Taiwan Semiconductor Industry Association.
(Excerpt) Read more at asia.nikkei.com ...
Heather and Jamaal gotta pay for gas!
No new iPhones, Nikes or X-box for you!
“I’m good enough and I’m smart enough and doggone it, people like me!”
Given Inflation, I should build a lifetime last Desktop from parts.
Like back in the fun Old Daze.
Well, once everybody has five or ten, that should be about enough.
I have *zero* intention of ever logging into any of our important online accounts with a smartphone. I don't care how safe people think the software is. As such, these phones are still plugging along, with the added benefit of having user-replaceable batteries.
Saw this related item yesterday here
Dumbphone Sales Are Soaring As People Revolt Against “Overwhelming” Smartphones
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/4050489/posts
Do we really need anything new? How much better does it have to get? Even the McDonalds Kiosk couldn’t stop asking if I wanted more. ‘U want fries with that?’ gets old.
Apparently, there is a big demand for newer and still simple flip phones for those of us with a life beyond our cell phones.
I’m waiting for one that is 5 G, takes a simple picture when wanted and enables me to text and receive texts from adult children and grandkids and friends and repulses/reverses any attempt to con or sell me/us something.
Lock it with maybe a dozen apps. Let it be able to send a 1 or 2 page letter whatever to a simple printer. Or bring back faxes for our one simple phone line as noted below.
Then, keep one separate and simple land line phone to talk to relatives and friends. My wife’s surviving relatives have started doing that, and once a week they call her live on a real phone line. Use call blockers and No More Robo Calls on the sob’s who call and waster our time with B$. Then, get laws passed to charge/fine these bastards with trespassing when they call us to sell us crap, unsolicited.
My iPhone works as an iPod. Pain in the butt. Wanted to buy a separate MP3 player. They’re trying very hard to do something. You tell me what it is.
I was given a used Samsung S6 3 years ago, which I did not activate (not worth the $) but I could connect to via our wireless and make calls via free Google voice (which carries about as far as our cordless land lines - the only service we have!) and used its camera.
Companies didn't know how long they'd be working remotely so they bought laptops for home use but kept the desktops in place at the office.
Companies that are keeping staff remote are not replacing the office computers.
Companies that are bringing people back to the office part time are having them drag their company laptops with them and connecting them to a dock at the office workstation.
Many people working remotely aren't using company machines at all but are connecting to the internet with their own computer and then connecting to a virtual machine licensed by the company such as the Windows Azure Virtual Desktop (WVD). A Microsoft WVD license can be $15 to $45 per month depending on performance, and much cheaper and more controllable than issuing employees laptops.
How about an apple pie? shake?
You posted:
“My iPhone works as an iPod. Pain in the butt. Wanted to buy a separate MP3 player. They’re trying very hard to do something. You tell me what it is.”
When I look at my family and what we expect from our computers, smart phones printers and whatever we use on a daily basis. It is a amazing what we do and expect from our electronic stuff.
My wife prefers to do 95 % of her stuff with her 3 year old Samsung smart phone/android, her reading with a kindle and a Amazon Fire tablet. She might use her Chromebook a few minutes a week. She uses my printers with the HP wireless app.. She texts, emails and uses a land line phone to communicate with friends, relatives, church people and to keep up with the news and our local newspaper’s web site. Again, most of this is done on her Samsung smart phone.
Our 2 land line phones were down for 2 days, and neither of us really missed them. I resuscitated them by turning off the land line backup battery and unplugged the land line modem and plugging them back in a few hours ago and not a single call has come through after we went back on line.
I prefer to use my/our chrome books to read and answer mail and most tasks. My 4 year old Samsung android not so smart phone may be on its last legs. So, do I replace it with a phone similar to my wife’s, get a Google Fi/5g or go to a granny phone.
If they come out with 5G chrome books that would allow me to use one anywhere and any place, I might opt for that and a granny phone to talk and text only.
Our adult sons in their mid 50’s are as opposite as my wife and I. One has a company, I phone 10? something. It and its worn out case makes him look like a street person with a phone. At home he and his better half share one of the latest Macs. She gets her books on their new IPad.
The other son is the opposite, he has the latest I phone/pad and uses them all the time. His office computer and programs are about a decade old and his tech people refuse to help to keep it alive. He refuses to allow his company install a desktop computer at his home.
His wife has the latest Apple everything that is electronic in her home office. Her I Phone and Pad are the latest on he market. She has a couple of one person businesses, and she writes off most of her electronic gear.
After the Covid B$, and so many people working at home or just retiring, buying the most powerful and newest out of their pockets is becoming a big no go.
One relative became a widower last year an ended up with his wife’s latest I Phone. He gave up dealing with it and now owns a Jitterbug. He gave that I Phone to a younger relative.
His wife had a nearly new Lexus SUV. He is passing that onto another younger relative. He is now driving a Honda Ridgeline. His brother gave up his I Phone earlier and went to the JitterBug. They don’t need complicated phones and and expensive system. The JitterBug meets their phone needs.
Apparently, there are at least 20/30 million Americans like my 2 BILs and maybe me re these complex and expensive cell phones. Do we really need them?
A few months ago I turned on "do not disturb" mode on my android phone. The only calls that ring are from people on my contacts list. All the rest can leave a message. Robo callers generally dont leave messages, and I can delete the ones who do.
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