E-Ten Information Systems Co (倚天資訊), a handheld device provider, expects revenues to increase by 30 percent this year as product shipments rise, a company executive said yesterday.
"There will be nearly 30 percent growth in our personal digital assistant [PDA] shipments this year to reach around 150,000 units, which will in turn help expand our revenues," Simon Hwang (黃杉榕), chairman and chief executive, said on the sidelines of a product launch yesterday.
The company expects Europe to contribute the largest amount of revenue, accounting for 50 percent, with Asian and Middle-Eastern countries making up around 20 percent each.
E-Ten hopes to shift its revenue contributions among these countries over the next few years, as there is strong demand coming from the Middle East for phones and PDAs, said the firm's president, Wayne Ma (
While a big chunk of its profits now come from financial PDAs, which use a paging system to offer real-time stock quotes, Ma expects more to come from PDAs for the industrial and communication sectors in the near future.
The company launched a PDA phone yesterday, the E-Ten M600, which targets business executives.
The M600, which retails for NT$21,900 (US$650), offers features including Internet phone software Skype, wireless connection ability and M-stock, which allows investors to check stock performance and place orders on the go.
According to Stone Wu (吳善同), an analyst with the Taipei-based market researcher Market Intelligence Center (市場情報中心), phone PDAs shipped by Taiwanese manufacturers will hit 15.70 million units in the fourth quarter, up 21 percent from a quarter earlier.
The growth will mainly be bolstered by a slew of new products aimed at the Christmas period and the transition to third-generation telecommunications networks, he said.
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