Motherboard maker Gigabyte Technology Co (技嘉科技) said it is planning to venture into the contract handset-manufacturing business in a move to expand its business portfolio.
"Talks with major global telecommunications operators are ongoing and we will secure contracts soon," said the company's chairman Dandy Yeh (葉培城).
Sources said that the company is talking to European telecom firms about producing its first batch of smartphones in the near term, but Yeh refused to comment further.
He made the remarks on the sidelines of a press conference yesterday, where Microsoft Taiwan invited partners including Quanta Computer Inc (廣達電腦) and Advantech Co (研華) to help show support for Microsoft's Windows Mobile and Embedded solutions.
In June 2004, Gigabyte Technology set up its handset affiliate Gigabyte Communications Inc (集嘉通訊), which unveiled its first branded cellphone locally last July.
Gigabyte Communications is targeting high-end models to increase its margins and avoid competition. It is also seeking opportunities to make phones for international brands outside the Asian market, Jesse Lee (李忠義), vice president of Gigabyte Communications, told the Taipei Times in May last year.
Global shipments of Gigabyte phones are in between 5,000 to 8,000 units a month, and volumes will likely pass 10,000 units a month this quarter, according to Yeh.
The company currently has two smartphones models which run on Windows Mobile, enabling users to access e-mail and Microsoft Office programs. They have been well received in markets in Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Russia, Yeh said.
By the end of the year, the company will launch another four to five more smartphone models running on the 2.5 generation network.
Gigabyte Technology is one of the Taiwanese vendors trying to cash in on Windows Mobile, hoping to duplicate the success of High Tech Computer Corp (宏達電).
High Tech Computer is the world's largest maker of handsets running Windows Mobile and it also markets its own-brand smartphones under the "HTC" brand in Europe and "Dopod" brand in Asia.
Microsoft is competing with larger rivals such as Symbian Ltd, a maker of a mobile operating system partly owned by Nokia Oyj, and Research In Motion Ltd's BlackBerry device, to boost acceptance of Windows Mobile in the wireless handheld space.
Currently there are more than 115 global telecom operators and 50 device makers offering more than 100 smartphone models that use Windows Mobile, said Eddie Wu (吳勝雄), Microsoft's senior director of device solutions sales in Asia.
More than 90 percent of such phones are locally produced, he added.
Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), the nation's top mobile phone operator, is set to launch its first dual-brand smartphone next month with High Tech Computer.
Up to 50,000 of the smartphones are expected to be shipped through the end of the year, which will benefit local Dopod sales, which currently stand at around 150,000 units per year, according to a Dopod official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
RSS