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New smartphone unveiled for Taiwan market

Taiwanese Dopod International Corp (多普達), a smartphone vendor initially based in Shanghai, launched its first mobile phone on its home turf yesterday aiming to quickly grab a share of the nation's market.

"We feel the timing is right to introduce Dopod-branded phones to the Taiwan market, which is maturing," said Jack Tong (董俊良), president of Dopod.

Tong made the remarks during the launch of the company's first handset here, the Dopod 0565.

The Dopod, 0565 embedded with a Microsoft operating system, offers a few computer functions such as e-mail and Web browsing.

Dopod, a company controlled by Cher Wang (王雪紅), chairwoman of the nation's biggest smartphone contract maker High Tech Computer Corp (宏達電), will heavily rely on High Tech for phone supplies for the time being.

High Tech also supplies handsets to T-Mobile International and Orange SA, a handset arm of France Telecom SA.

Dopod, the nation's second handset vendor focusing on smartphones after Mitac International Corp (神達電腦), which owns the Mio brand, plans to sell 150,000 mobile phones by the end of this year.

Dopod plans to launch three to four models on the local market over the next few months, targeting business travelers and technology-crazed youngsters.

However, Peggy Chang (張意珮), an analyst with research house Topology Research Institute (拓墣產業研究所), said such niche hansets have not won widespread acceptance in most part of the world including Taiwan.

"Only Western European mobile phone users show a strong appetite for smartphones," Chang said.

Mobile phone retailers only purchased 600,000 units in Taiwan, she said.

"I don't expect the volume to grow significantly this year. Although Sony Ericsson's P900 became a hot number after its launch, it should be seen as the exception," she said, adding that Sony Eric-sson's excellent handset design attracted many consumers.

Rising handset inventory, mostly in China, will also squeeze demand for high-end mobile phones including smartphones, she said.

Chang expects the huge inventory in handsets will not be reduced until October.

Dopod International Corp's market launch here comes after more than two years of operation in China.
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