E-TEN Information Systems Co., Ltd. (倚天資訊股份有限公司) was an

electronics The field of electronics is a branch of physics and electrical engineering that deals with the emission, behaviour and effects of electrons using electronic devices. Electronics uses active devices to control electron flow by amplification ...

manufacturing company based in

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northe ...

, specializing in sophisticated handheld devices such as

smartphone A smartphone is a portable computer device that combines mobile telephone and computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, whic ...

s. Founded in 1985 in

Taipei Taipei (), officially Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about southwest of the ...

, E-TEN initially became known for its

Chinese language Chinese (, especially when referring to written Chinese) is a group of languages spoken natively by the ethnic Han Chinese majority and many minority ethnic groups in Greater China. About 1.3 billion people (or approximately 16% of the ...

input system for DOS based computers. The company went on to introduce various computer products, both computer hardware and

software Software is a set of computer programs and associated software documentation, documentation and data (computing), data. This is in contrast to Computer hardware, hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. ...

, building on its experience in rendering Chinese characters. Market offerings included a publishing application, a

laser printer Laser printing is an electrostatic digital printing process. It produces high-quality text and graphics (and moderate-quality photographs) by repeatedly passing a laser beam back and forth over a negatively-charged cylinder called a "drum" t ...

, and a Microsoft Windows-based input system. E-TEN turned to handheld devices in 1997, with the introduction of a real-time stock trading "financial pager" that became quite popular in the financial community of Taiwan. Then the company focused on manufacturing advanced communicators (both branded and ODM) based on the

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation, multinational technology company, technology corporation producing Software, computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at th ...

Windows Mobile Windows Mobile is a discontinued family of mobile operating systems developed by Microsoft for smartphones and personal digital assistants. Its origin dated back to Windows CE in 1996, though Windows Mobile itself first appeared in 2000 as Pock ...

, as well as DAB receivers. Eten Glofiish X650 AF

In 2006, E-TEN introduced their new Glofiish line of

s; the X500 and M700. Both models featured GSM,

Bluetooth Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances and building personal area networks (PANs). In the most widely used mode, transmission power is limit ...

Wi-Fi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio w ...

and

GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of the global navigation satellite sy ...

. First Glofiish Model with 3G support is the X800, which is released Q3 2007, followed by the M800 with a sliding keyboard released shortly after. The Torq N100 smartphone was the first mobile phone to have an integrated 10 megapixel CMOS sensor, TV tuner and a camcorder that shot up to 30 frames per second DVD quality. 2008Computex Glofiish DX900

E-TEN was awarded the Best Choice of

Computex COMPUTEX Taipei, or Taipei International Information Technology Show (), is a computer expo held annually in Taipei, Taiwan. Since the early 2000s, it is one of the largest computer and technology trade shows in the world. The last COMPUTEX was ...

Award 2008 for its Glofiish DX900 – the first dual- SIM Windows Mobile handset to support

HSDPA High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) is an amalgamation of two mobile protocols—High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) and High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA)—that extends and improves the performance of existing 3G mobile telecommunica ...

and

EDGE Edge or EDGE may refer to: Technology Computing * Edge computing, a network load-balancing system * Edge device, an entry point to a computer network * Adobe Edge, a graphical development application * Microsoft Edge, a web browser developed b ...

. The DX900 was showcased at the E-TEN booth along with three more

Pocket PC A Pocket PC (P/PC, PPC) is a class of personal digital assistant (PDA) that runs the Windows Mobile or Windows Embedded Compact operating system that has some of the abilities of modern desktop PCs. The name was introduced by Microsoft in 200 ...

phones - the V900, the X900, and the X610. Russia was the most successful market for E-TEN products. The company had significant market share there - up to 20.52% (Q1 2008), making it one of the few markets where

HTC Corporation HTC Corporation ( zh, t=宏達國際電子股份有限公司, s=宏达国际电子股份有限公司, p=Hóngdá Guójì Diànzǐ Gǔfèn Yǒuxiàn Gōngsī, first=t) or High Tech Computer Corporation, (literally ''Hongda International Electron ...

was not a market leader in Windows Mobile-based devices In March, 2008

Acer Acer may refer to: * ''Acer'' (plant), the genus of trees and shrubs commonly known as maples * Acer Inc., a computer company in Taiwan ** Acer Laboratories Incorporated, a subsidiary company of Acer, Inc., that designs and manufactures integrate ...

announced that it would buy E-TEN for $290 million ( US). Acer chairman J.T. Wang stated that the "acquisition of E-TEN increases Acer's global footprint by giving us a strong and highly credible presence in the mobility segment." After the buyout, the E-TEN brand was discontinued, and the Acer name was used on all future products. Eten glofiish M800

References

External links

E-TEN corporate website

E-TEN consumer website
{{Acer Inc. Electronics companies of Taiwan Technology companies established in 1985 Taiwanese companies established in 1985