Market watchers yesterday applauded Accton Technology Corp's (
"Based on the alliance, Accton will be able to integrate its wireless network modules with Philips consumer electronics," said Nathan Lin (
"The joint force is good for Accton ? it will help the company to expand into a new sector," he said.
Accton, one of the nation's major makers of network switches, hubs, Ethernet cards and wireless local area network (LAN) cards, announced on Thursday it plans to spin off its wireless division.
"Philips and Accton signed a letter of intent last month and agreed to form a joint venture focusing on the application of wireless technology to consumer products," said Lee Chiu-huei (李秋惠), a public relations officer at Accton.
Initial capital investment in the new company was NT$226 million and Philips plans to acquire a 40 percent stake, according to Accton spokesman Frank Kuo (郭飛龍).
"This is an exciting opportunity to combine Philips' consumer research with Accton's original design manufacturing ability," he said.
The new company aims to be a wireless solution provider, with the capability to deliver a complete range of wireless products with multimedia-ready home networking capabilities.
To do so, the company plans to develop applications such as streaming music and video, multimedia messaging and voice-over IP in a broadband environment.
Another market watcher said the home-networking sector looks promising.
"We have seen a demand for home networking emerging in North America recently," said Simon Hsu (
With an increasing number of consumer electronics such as TVs, MP3 players and refrigerators able to read digital signals, users expect to connect these digital devices via wireless technology, he said.
For instance, once a home wireless network is up and running, users can transmit video or music downloaded from a PC to a TV or an MP3 player without using a cable.
The venture plans to specialize in the manufacture of Philips consumer electronics with Accton wireless devices built in.
However, SinoPac's Lin said that with the technology under development and market demand limited, it may be hard to profit in the short term.
Last year, around 73 percent of the world's wireless LAN equipment was manufactured in Taiwan.
According to the government-funded Market Intelligence Center (MIC), the nation shipped more than 11 million wireless LAN units last year, generating US$436.2 million in sales. The center estimates the number of wireless LAN units exported will jump 50 percent to 16.8 million units this year for a total of US$529 million in sales.
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