FUTURISTIC GROOVES

Bruce Einhorn has a fascinating article on Taiwan in Business Week. Taiwanese companies, he reports, now control 72% of the world’s production of portable computers, 68% of LCD displays, 70% of microchips, and 79% of PDAs - as well as a third of the markets for manufacturing servers and digital cameras. With the most sought-after engineers of tech products, the island is becoming the brains of the world’s IT industry.

An interesting and considerable part in this piece is:

Real reconciliation thus seems a long way off. Yet any serious attempt to lower the tension would hold huge promise for the executives who run America’s IT industry, which depends on Taiwan for so much of its goods. A shooting war between Taiwan and China would be catastrophic in human terms. And for the Western companies that have built their fortunes around Taiwan, the damage would be a direct hit to the global economy and the Digital Age. “It would be the equivalent of a nuclear bomb going off,” says a top executive at a U.S. high-tech giant. Couldn’t U.S. industry develop sources of IT supply that don’t involve the Taiwanese? “That’s like asking, ‘What’s the second source for Mideast oil?’ says this exec.”

My favorite line in the piece comes from Intel’s John Antone he compares Taiwan to long-distance runners who are being challenged but who are still in the lead. “As long as they’re committed to run very aggressively,” he says, “I don’t see anyone catching them.” Competitors be warned: Taiwan will do everything it can to stay in the race.”