Dopod International Corp (多普達), a new player in Taiwan's 6 million mobile-handset market, yesterday unveiled its second Windows-based smartphone, after debuting its first model, the Dopod565, two months ago.
"As our first model jumped to be the second-highest seller on online handset trading site Wantgo.com.tw (網購) soon after the August launch, ? we believe Dopod is well on the way to become a top smartphone brand," chief executive Jack Tong (董良俊) said yesterday.
Dopod has every reason to be optimistic, as the vendor sold over 4,000 Dopod565 models in the first 40 days after its rollout, Tong said.
Consumers still have to queue up for the phone, which includes Internet access, a work planner and entertainment functions, he added.
Dopod launched its first smartphone on the domestic market this year after operating in China for two years. Although a latecomer to this line of business compared to local rival Mitac International Corp (神達電腦), an industry watcher said that Dopod holds the upper hand in having grabbed a slice of the thriving smartphone domestic market.
"Dopod has strong technology and manufacturing support from High Tech Computer Corp (
High Tech Computer is the nation's top smartphone contract maker for global brands such as T-Mobile International and Orange SA, a handset arm of France Telecom SA. Wang, a daughter of business tycoon Wang Yung-ching (
In contrast, Mitac, a local pioneer in the smartphone segment, is struggling to stay in the market.
Early this year, Mitac decided to slow its expansion, citing limited acceptance of high-end mobile phones. The move came after Mitac's launch of two clamshell models under the Mio brand in the past 18 months.
As part of its restructuring plan, Mitac spun off its own-brand business and became a smartphone and PDA contract maker. Mio Technology Ltd (
"We don't have any plan to unveil new models soon until [we outline] new strategies," said an official who requested anonymity.
BenQ Corp (
The company said earlier that it wanted to unveil its first smartphone by the end of the year. Analysts said the postponement may be due to a weakness in developing new products.
Smartphones are expected to account for 4 percent of the 600 million cellphones sold worldwide this year, up significantly from less than 2 percent -- or 9 million out of 520 million total handsets sold last year, Chang said.
"We believe the strong growth will be sustained through the next few years, to 2008," Chang said.
Despite an ambition to become the nation's top maker of high-end cellphones, Dopod faces fierce competition from bigger rivals, including Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AG, for the top position.
Sony Ericsson's P900 Symbian-based model became a hit shortly after its rollout at the beginning of the year.
The Japanese-Swedish company plans to unveil an enhanced model, the P910i, next month.
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