Compal Communications Inc (華寶通訊), a 58 percent owned subsidiary of notebook maker Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶電腦), signed an agreement with Motorola Inc yesterday to jointly develop global packet radio service (GPRS) mobile phones. The company plans to begin shipping the handsets in the fourth quarter of this year.
Mobile handsets made to work with GPRS, or 2.5 generation mobile Internet, can be used at speeds up to 110 kilobits per second (kbps), nearly twice the speed of a desktop computer hooked up to a phone line through a 56k modem.
"We've been approved by Motorola to manufacture GPRS handsets, but we are not disclosing the size of the shipments," said Chang Chih-ming (
Observers wonder if the new deal will really pan out for Compal this year. New orders will depend on whether or not consumers choose to log onto the Internet via their mobile phones. So far, people have avoided such services.
"GPRS handsets are not very popular currently, I think most users are happy with their current [mobile phones]. Also, the GPRS infrastructure isn't ready to launch ... I think we'll have to wait until 2002 for GPRS to become popular," said James Huang (黃建銘), analyst at National Securities Corp (建弘證券).
In Taiwan, local mobile phone service providers, like Taiwan Cellular Corp (
After the poor performance of first generation mobile Internet, WAP, which ran at a clunky 9.6k, many people have crossed high-tech mobile phone products off their wish lists. For this reason, analysts say mobile phone service providers are going to have to work hard to coax users back and get their GPRS "Web without wires" systems going. Only then will the market for GPRS handsets heat up.
"[Mobile phone service providers] have to provide competitive prices in order to attract customers," said Huang, pointing out that in Taiwan, people still prefer to use their phones for talking, and not downloading data.
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