Kelly Huang, a 22-year-old saleswoman at a Taipei branch of a Hong Kong-based women's wear chain, thought her cute silver clamshell Samsung T108 was good enough for her to chat with friends. But without a built-in camera, Huang recently found herself the target of growing complaints from friends -- who said they couldn't swap photos with her via cellphone.
"In the past, for me mobile phones were simply a device for talking," Huang said. "But now, most of my friends have camera phones to take pictures of anything cool. Most of those pictures will become their screensavers or enrich their photo books."
PHOTO: LISA WANG, TAIPEI TIMES
Huang, who earns an average wage of less than NT$30,000 a month, said she is now willing to pay half that amount to splurge on a camera phone.
"It's a lot of cash," Huang admitted. "But if you don't have a camera phone, you're lame."
Huang's example corresponds to a recent survey released by local handset vendor Dbtel Inc (
"As over 40 percent of local consumers have digital camera phones, we believe megapixel camera phones will be a potential growth area," Dbtel said in the statement released late last month.
The survey was conducted during the four-day annual telecom show in late August in Taipei, said Dbtel, which did not release the number of people surveyed.
Though the result is based on a small-scale survey of a limited group, it points to a clear trend. Camera phones are driving a new wave of replacement buying after the previous wave of replacement of color-screen cellphones for gray-scale models this past year.
"It's a global trend that a camera is becoming a must for mobile phones," said Ann Liang (
Other driving forces for mature markets next year will include MP3 digital music players, sliding cover phones and more commercial launches of speedy third-generation (3G) phones Liang added.
"The question now is which kind of camera phones will dominate the market," Liang said. "In Japan and South Korea, they already have 3-megapixel camera phones on the market."
In Taiwan, local mobile phone vendors and international big competitors have unveiled, or plan to launch soon, one megapixel, or 1.3-megapixel camera phones in a last-ditch effort to boost this year's unit sales after the industry's peak season in summer.
Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AG, the world's No. 5 mobile phone vendor, just pitched its 1.3-megapixel camera phone S700i, a fusion of handset and digital camera, into the market last week.
Siemens AG followed close behind with release of its S65.
"As the line between cellphone and digital camera becomes blurred, we believe megapixel camera phones will prevail next year after more players join the game and bring down prices," said Steven Yeh (葉順發), general manager of Sony Ericsson's Taiwan branch.
Since the launch of the S700i, with a big 2.3-inch liquid-crystal-display (LCD) screen and a swivel design, Sony Ericsson said the model has been a focus of cyberspace discussion at sites such as Sogi.com.tw (
"Only when the resolution is improved to 2-megapixel, or even higher, is there any likelihood of that," Yeh said, adding that his company will roll out such high-end models next year.
To capture the new wave of handset replacement, Inventec Appliances Corp (
More vendors, including US handset giant Motorola Inc and Dbtel, are to join the battle later this quarter.
Finland's Nokia Oyj said it would not miss out. The world's largest mobile phone vendor is scheduled to release its second megapixel camera phone next month after its first model, the 7610, became popular after its July launch.
With a high price tag -- at NT$19,900 -- Senao International Co (
"Demand is likely to shoot up in the second half of 2005 after prices for such high-end mobile phones fall to an acceptable level of around NT$12,800 each," said Senao International vice president Bruce Chiu (
Chris Tan (
"Without `killer applications' emerging anytime soon, megapixel camera phones may become the main factor prompting purchases by mobile users picky about imaging quality," Tan said. "But for most people, they are still too expensive to afford."
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure