Taiwansoft Technology Inc (
"Taiwansoft has been selling lower-priced cameras since 2001. Now Taiwansoft is at a crossroads in expanding to cater to the needs of our customers," said Taiwansoft general manager Scott Huang (黃思齊).
Huang, former head of the Finnish mobile phone giant Nokia Oyj in Taiwan, said he did not expect camera phones to replace digital cameras soon.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
"Limited memory space and slow transmission speed remain some of the major obstacles for handset vendors to overcome," he said.
Huang made the remarks on the sidelines of a ceremony to launch the company's first high-end 5-megapixel digital cameras. The new models cost NT$11,900, compared to older Taiwansoft models usually priced below NT$8,000.
With up to 12 new cameras in the pipeline this year, including at least three high-end models, the local consumer electronics maker hopes to more than double its unit sales to about 120,000 units, up from 75,000 units last year, Huang said.
Taiwansoft forecasts that the total market for digital cameras in Taiwan will reach 600,000, meaning the company would garner 20 percent of the market.
Taiwansoft, which also sells liquid-crystal-display TVs under the Digimaster brand, said it would work closely with its local original equipment manufacturers including Ability Enterprise Co (
The company, which is organizing an initial pubic offering in Taiwan next year, also hopes to boost its revenues to about NT$1 billion, 20 percent up from last year.
BenQ Corp (
"The price cuts by Japanese companies like Sony Corp and Nikon Corp, which have long dominated the local market, will likely cut into local brands' sales this year," said Danny Yao (
The prices of some models have been slashed up by up to 40 percent, he said.
"First-quarter sales are surprisingly weak. And we haven't seen a rebound yet, which should have set in along with a gradual recovery in some information technology gadgets as it did before," Yao said.
BenQ aims to sell 100,000 digital cameras this year, Yao said.
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