Taiwanese mobile--phone manufacturers are expected to report brisk sales in the run-up to the end of the year, as handset shipments in the second half of the year grow 23 percent over the first half to 23 million units, market analysts said over the weekend.
As global demand for handsets gradually rebounds from the SARS epidemic which hit the market hard in the second quarter of this year, Taiwanese phone makers -- who produce nearly 10 percent of the world's handsets -- are set to benefit from the recovery, Mark Yen (
Based on such positive sentiments, Yen expects this year that Taiwanese handset makers such as BenQ Corp (
"The improvement will mostly come from Western countries as the holiday season is a peak for consumer electronics," Yen said.
Phone companies in the current replacement market are relying on customers to upgrade to more expensive phones with color screens and digital cameras, he added.
Western Europe and North America account for 25 percent and 21 percent of the world's mobile phone sales respectively.
However, the situation in the world's largest market, China, which controls some 33 percent of global handset consumption, is not that bright.
"There is no relief to the escalating [over-supply] crisis in the Chinese market," said Ann Liang (
According to a report released by Gartner earlier this month, worldwide mobile phone sales totaled 114.9 million units in the second quarter of this year, a 12 percent increase over the same period last year.
As the SARS outbreak in China during April and May undermined the market, Motorola Inc -- the No. 1 brand in China -- saw its global market share drop to 14.6 percent from 17 percent the same quarter last year, the report said.
Nokia continued to dominate the market with a 35.9 percent worldwide market share. Other international brands on the top five list are South Korea-based Samsung Electronics Co with 9.9 percent, Germany-based Siemens with 7 percent and Sony Ericsson with 5.5 percent global market share.
China will rebound quickly, Yen said, clearing out unsold stock from warehouses and increasing the demand for new phones.
"We expect the pressure of high inventories will be eased in the last quarter of this year," Yen said
He added that there is about four months' worth of inventory, or 20 million handsets, currently awaiting sale in China.
Nevertheless, SARS may still be a potential threat to the market.
"The national holiday in October is supposed to be a peak for handset sales in China," Liang said.
If SARS doesn't re-emerge to hurt the holiday sales, China's handset sales will maintain an acceptable level of growth, she said.
Early this year, Gartner originally predicted handset sales in China would jump to 62 million units this year from last year's 55 million, but now says the figure will likely stay below 60 million.
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