Best of the Best Shine at the Taiwan Excellence Gold Awards
2013/07/09 | By Quincy LiangBroader spectrum of winners highlights Taiwan's advances beyond the ICT sector
The Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) announced the 10 winners of the prestigious Taiwan Excellence Gold Award at a gala ceremony held in Taipei in late April.
The award has traditionally focused mainly on the information and communications technology (ICT) industry. This year's show, however, highlighted the widening diversity of products being considered for the distinction, such as machinery, automobiles, and fitness equipment. A panel of international judges with expertise in the five key criteria of evaluation for the awards – R&D, design, quality, marketing, and "Made in Taiwan" – decided they all deserved gold. In order to receive the award, products must embody "innovalue" ("innovation + added value") in each of the five categories.
Vice President Wu Den-yih presented the gold awards to the 10 winning companies at the ceremony, which was also joined by many industry leaders.
Typically known for its ICT products, Taiwan is also one of the world's top producers of bicycles and fitness equipment. Among the repeat winners at the awards this year were bicycle makers Giant and Merida, who won for their ANYROAD and Warp TT bicycles, respectively. Sports Art Industrial Co., Ltd. received the award for its environmental Green System Elliptical, whose innovative design harnesses human-generated power from exercisers and feeds it back into the power grid as useable energy.
Leading brands from Taiwan's lesser-known but highly competitive industries, such as machine tools and automobiles, also came home with the gold award this year. Machine tool maker Hiwin won for its Crossed Roller Bearing Series, while local car manufacturer Luxgen (of Yulon Group) won for its Luxgen5 Sedan. In a unique cross-industry partnership, Luxgen teamed with local smartphone maker HTC Corp. to develop the car's unique THINK+ Touch system, which provides consumers with a new level of convenience in onboard computers.
Jury's Comments
Ralph Wiegmann, president of iF International Forum Design GmbH and a member in this year's jury, noted how the awards continued to showcase a broader range of lesser known Taiwan industries, such as machinery.
Taiwan's outstanding global competitiveness in the ICT sector was still showcased in this year's awards. PC maker ASUSTeK, for example, received the gold award this year for its Padfone 2, a tablet smartphone and tablet combination that is lighter, smoother, and more elegantly designed than its predecessor. HTC Corp. made the list for its HTC One S smartphone.
Other prize winners in the ICT segment this year included the Travel Cloud Router from networking solutions maker D-Link, the 65-inch Quad Full HD Slim Type and Narrow Bezel TV Module from Innolux Corporation, and PhotoDirector 4 from multimedia software producer Cyberlink.
Andrej Skrinjar, president of INPEX International and this year's R&D judge, discussed how the awards bring together an outstanding array of products. "I follow a lot of countries and lot of events like [Taiwan Excellence] from USA to Europe, said Skrinjar. "But a collection like this I have never seen, one with so many world-renowned companies. And research and development is a very key point of those companies."
Seijiro Oshimura, Managing Director of the Management Research Institute in Tokyo and Taiwan Excellence quality judge, spoke about how Taiwan products are quickly gaining prominence in overseas markets. "Taiwan's products have improved in quality to the point where they are becoming highly competitive in their respective fields," said Oshimura. "It's very difficult to maintain first place, but brands such as ASUS and Merida have already overshot their Japanese counterparts to become No. 1 in Japan."
Oshimura added that he hoped the range of Taiwan Excellence Gold entries could continue to become more expansive to include a greater number of Taiwan's exceptional small and medium-sized enterprises.
21st Taiwan Excellence
This year marked the 21st edition of the Taiwan Excellence Awards, the contest received 1,221 (1,145 in 2012 and 974 in 2011) submissions from 483 (426 in 2012 and 381 in 2011) companies in Taiwan, with 541 (441 in 2012) products cited for excellence, and 26 (29 in 2012 and 30 in 2011) items from 17 (19 in 2012 and 25 in 2011) companies picked for the final and 10 eventually winning the Gold Awards, and the remaining Silver Awards.
2013
| ||
Product
| Model Number
| Company
|
PadFone 2
| A68
| ASUSTeK Computer Inc.
|
PhotoDirector 4
| Ultra
| CyberLink Corp.
|
Travel Cloud Router
| DIR
| D-Link Corporation
|
ANYROAD
| ANYROAD
| Giant Manufacturing Co., Ltd.
|
Crossed Roller Bearing Series
| CRB Series
| Hiwin Technologies Corp.
|
HTC One S
| Z560e
| HTC Corp.
|
65 Inch Quad Full HD Slim Type and Narrow Bezel TV Module
| V650DK1-LS1
| INNOLUX Corporation
|
Luxgen 5
| Luxgen 5
| Luxgen Motor Co., Ltd.
|
Warp TT
| Warp TT
| MERIDA Industry Co., Ltd.
|
Green System Elliptical
| G872
| Sports Art Industrial Co., Ltd
|
Source: TAITRA
| ||
2013 Taiwan Excellence Gold Award Winners
Company: Luxgen Motor Co., Ltd.
Product: Luxgen5 Sedan
Model No.: Luxgen5 Sedan
The Luxgen5 Sedan, equipped with the latest innovative smartphone technology, marks a milestone in the history of international auto design. The styling of the Luxgen5 Sedan not only features decorative wings for the logo at the front that continue along the hood, but also 12 "Re-curved Strokes" along the body of the car, giving it a dynamic visual effect.
Luxgen partnered with the smart phone maker HTC to develop the unique THINK+ Touch system. The system provides consumers with a new level of convenience in onboard computers. The Luxgen5 Sedan comes equipped with Luxgen's advanced technology, including the Active Eagle View+ 360 surround imaging system, the Night Vision+ night driving image enhancing system, the LDWS+ lane departure warning system and the Side View+ blind spot monitoring system. The Luxgen5 Sedan is designed for global markets.
Company: Sports Art Industrial Co., Ltd.
Product: Green System Elliptical
Model No.: G872
SportsArt Fitness' latest eco-friendly innovation is the revolutionary Green System. The Green System is a "pod" of fitness products attached to an inverter that harnesses human-generated power from exercisers and feeds it back into the power grid as useable energy. Club owners who replace all of their ellipticals and cycles with Green System products will see significant power offset savings. The power inverter attached to the Green System is about the size of a stereo receiver and has a regular 200-240VAC plug that needs to be wired to the grid for safety and priority.
SportsArt Fitness has announced that their human energy harnessing cardio products and inverter, known as the Green System, have become the first and only products of their kind to receive cETLus approval in the U.S. and Canada.
Company: Hiwin Technologies Corp.
Product: Crossed Roller Bearing Series
Model No.: CRB series
HIWIN Crossed Roller Bearings offer high loading capacity, high rigidity, high accuracy, compact sizes, and smooth rotation. They could be used in machine tools, five-axis machine centers, robots, industrial automation machines, semiconductor devices, and other low rotation speed, high loading applications. HIWIN offers the bearings in various sizes.
According to HIWIN, the Crossed Roller Bearing provides a linear contact, which creates a broader contact surface that can carry a heavier load. This gives the bearings greater rigidity, less deformation and a longer life. The rollers crisscross each other at 90-degree angle, which enables the bearings to simultaneously support axial forces, radial forces, and other forces from multiple directions. The patented spacer can achieve best-of-class loading capacities.
Company: Giant Manufacturing Co., Ltd.
Product: ANYROAD
Model No.: ANYROAD
ANYROAD is an all-terrain drop-bar bike for Sports & Fitness. It has the advantages of a dropbar bike: better riding skill and stronger muscles required, better aerodynamics to decrease power loss, and reduced fatigue generated from long rides; as well as the advantages of a flatbar bike: easy handling to helps riders enjoy the ride.
The innovative designs of the bike includes:
1. Newly designed frameset and geometry: Higher head-tube enables comfortable handling. Lower step-over increases the sense of safety, visually and psychologically.
2. Ergonomics Dropbar: The ergo-shaped dropbar is more natural and easier to handle. It also has a shorter bar reach and drop, resulting in shorter distance between hand positions and enabling riders to smoothly and easily change postures.
3. Friendly four-point brake system: Featuring specially-designed sub-levers and four positions for easy and intuitive braking.
4. All new 32C multi-terrain tires: The tires are designed to handle all road conditions, providing on-road speed and off-road handling.
Company: MERIDA Industry Co., Ltd.
Product: Warp TT
Model No.: Warp TT
Merida claims that its Warp TT is among the most aerodynamic time-trial bikes available today. It combines an unbelievable adjustability to different racer physiognomies, performance levels and race distances, safe braking and advanced, electric shifting with total invisibility of the wires and battery.
Features:
—Wind-tunnel optimized, aerodynamic frame-design with special fastback wing-profiled tube cross-sections and curved seat-stay.
—Integrated aero handlebar-stem and -bar with wide adjustment range for maximum versatility
—Fully hydraulic TT brake system with superior modulation and brake performance
—Brake cables, electric wires and battery for the Shimano Di electronic shifting totally integrated in bar, stem and frame.
Company: D-Link Corporation
Product: Travel Cloud Router
Model No.: DIR-505L
The DIR-505L Travel Cloud Router lets you share your Internet connection and your files anytime, anywhere. Use a web browser or the mydlink SharePort app to easily stream photos, videos, music, and documents directly to your PC or mobile device. Tiny yet versatile, it gives you all the functionality of a router, access point, wireless repeater, and network storage drive in a device that fits in the palm of your hand.
Company: HTC Corp.
Product: HTC One S
Model No.: Z560e
The HTC One S is a super-thin and attractively designed phone. The 4.3-in. display delivers a rich viewing experience. The camera captures with crisp and vivid photos, even in low light, while the Beats Audio function delivers authentic sound.
The 7.95mm slim unibody design of HTC's One S smartphone reflects the highest standards of craftsmanship. The phone is the lightest of its kind, at only 120g. It is also the first handset with Micro Arc Oxidation treatment for better durability and premium finish. The treatment provides a ceramic feel on metal and offers stronger scratch resistance.
Company: ASUSTeK Computer Inc.
Product: PadFone 2
Model No.: A68
ASUS PadFone 2 is a simple, convenient, lightweight and eye-catching mobile device combining a smartphone and tablet into one, separable unit. It puts an end to the inconvenience of carrying two device, whether for business or leisure.
The PadFone 2 improves on ASUS' PadFone 1 with a lighter weight (around 650g for the phone+tablet), smooth, elegant design, MHL technology, ips+ screen and LTE support, taking the smartphone+tablet combination concept to a whole new level.
Company: CyberLink Corp.
Product: PhotoDirector4
Model No.: Ultra
The PhotoDirector 4 is an intuitive photography software package with a full range of features to help photographers effectively manage, adjust, edit and showcase photos. It is also CyberLink's first Mac-compatible software, supporting the latest Mac OS X 10.8 as well as Windows 8 systems.
Key Features in PhotoDirector 4 include:
• Intuitive Photo Management – Users can easily organize and retrieve photos with Face Recognition Technology.
• Blazing Adjustments – Photos can be transformed into masterpieces with powerful regional and global adjustment tools and extensive photo presets, including HDR effects and more.
• Flawless Portraits – Stunning and flawless photos can be created with a complete set of People Beautifier editing tools, including the new Body Shaper.
• Content-Aware Removal – Powerful algorithm to remove unwanted objects and automatically fill in the area based on its surrounding background. This tool has previously only been available in expensive high-end photo editing solutions.
• Photo Showcase – Share your photos on high-quality prints, web and create animated slideshows.
Company: Innolux Corporation
Product: 65-inch Quad Full HD Slim Type and Narrow Bezel TV Module
Model No.: V650DK1-LS1
The 4K2K (3840 x 2160 pixel resolution) series has a 65-inch display with 120Hz and QFHD LCD module with 3D function. It entered mass production in the fourth quarter of 2012.
In addition to high resolution and 3D application, the model provides superior optical performance, including high brightness (400 nits), high contrast ratio (5000:1), high color depth (10 bits), and high color Gamut. The panel has an energy-efficient LED backlight and a slim 7.5mm bezel. The display wows with its rich 3D image quality, making it suitable for home theater, digital display and exhibition functions.
Taiwan Excellence Silver Award Winners
Product
| Model Number
| Company
|
TAICHI
| TAICHI21 / TAICHI31
| ASUSTeK Computer Inc
|
HD PoE Outdoor Cube Network Camera
| DCS
| D-Link Corporation
|
Wireless N 360° Home Network Camera
| DCS
| D-Link Corporation
|
Admiration - Lotus and Kingfisher vase
| FZ02939
| Franz Collection Inc.
|
Agehana maraho vase
| FZ03065
| Franz Collection Inc.
|
Avail Advanced SL
| Avail Advanced SL
| Giant Manufacturing Co., Ltd.
|
BT4024DV11 Disc Type Tool Magazine
| B4001-024DV11-GF0020
| Gifu Enterprise Co., Ltd.
|
15.6" Blu-ray Gaming Notebook
| P
| Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
|
GTX 680 Super Overclock Series Graphics Card
| GV-N680SO-2GD
| Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
|
Super Slim LED
| HD-42MB3 / HD-46MB3 / HD-55MB3
| Heran Co., Ltd.
|
HTC One X
| S720e
| HTC Corp.
|
HasSpace="False" SourceValue="4.3" UnitName="”" w:st="on">4.3”
| PE043ZE-D1Z
| Innolux Corporation
|
E-Big Nine – 29er
| Big Nine E-Lite
| Merida Industry Co., Ltd.
|
3 SPEED FOLDING BIKE
| EVO KS3
| Ming Cycle Industrial Co., Ltd.
|
Wireless-N Gigabit Long Range Ceiling Mount Dual Concurrent Access Point
| EAP600
| Senao Networks, Inc.
|
SpareOne Emergency Phone
| SpareOne Phone
| TennRich International Corp
|