Mitac International Corp (神達電腦), one of Taiwan's leading computer and mobile-phone makers, expects a surge in handset shipments this year amid a generally bright outlook for the "smartphone" sector around the world, the company said yesterday.
Mobile-phone shipments will rise to around 1 million units this year, a 10-fold increase over last year, said Samual Wang, vice president of Mitac's mobile communications department.
"I believe we have a good chance of hitting that target as the demand for such handheld devices will start to boom this year in light of a growing acceptance" of smartphones, Wang said.
Wang made the remarks during the launch of the company's second smartphone, Mio8390. The clamshell phone is powered by Microsoft's Windows operating system and has a built-in camera.
Mitac, which sells its smartphones under the Mio brand, rolled out its first smartphone last June.
Wang's upbeat projection comes as global smartphone shipments are expected to more than double to around 33 million units this year from 15 million units last year, according to market researcher International Data Corp (IDC).
In addition to the healthy growth in the smartphone sector, Wang said the strategic alliance with an unspecified European mobile service operator this year is also a key factor driving up shipments.
If the company reaches the target, Wang said the contribution of his department will double to 20 percent of Mitac's total sales of about NT$55 billion this year.
Industry watchers remained guarded about the company despite strong global demand for smartphones.
"2004 will be a high-growth year for the smartphone segment, but that will not guarantee similar growth for Mitac," said Chris Tan (
The cooperation with a European mobile service carrier will certainly help boost Mitac's handset shipments, but how big the growth will be remains uncertain, Tan said.
Ken Ko (柯維華), a research manager at local market researcher Topology Research Institute (拓墣產業研究所), said the booming demand for smartphones would largely benefit Taiwanese handset original equipment manufacturers (OEM) instead of small brand-name vendors like Mitac.
High Tech Computer Corp (宏達電子), the world's largest personal digital assistant maker, Compal Communications Inc (華寶通訊), Arima Communication Corp (華冠) and Chi Mei Communication Systems Inc (奇美通訊) are expected to win big orders from international mobile-phone vendors, Ko forecast.
"Poor design and manufacturing capabilities will be a disadvantage for Mitac in catching up in the fast-changing handset market," he said.
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