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Mio Technology predicts doubling of GPS shipments

Mio Technology Ltd (宇達電通), the nation's leading manufacturer of global positioning systems (GPS), is predicting strong shipment growth for its own-brand GPS products, fueled by demand from the US and European markets, a company executive said yesterday.

The company has been enjoying strong momentum in recent years, with worldwide shipments this year expected to more than double to 3.5 million units, Samuel Wang, president of Mio Technology, told reporters yesterday.

Last year's shipments totaled 1.6 million units, nearly twice the 900,000 units in 2005, according to company statistics.

"Driven by sales in the US and Europe, we will see rosy prospects this year," Wang said.

Mio Technology only moved into the competitive US market at the end of last year, yet has already managed to gain a 6 percent market share, Wang said, adding that it aimed to boost share to 11 percent at around 700,000 units this year.

In Eastern Europe, which is the company's major market, sales are expected to rise to 1.7 million units from 0.9 million last year, he said.

If the shipment target is met, Wang said that the company was confident it would post NT$30 billion (US$913.3 million) in sales for this year -- up from NT$13 billion last year.

According to researcher Gartner Inc, Mio Technology ranked fifth in worldwide personal digital assistant (PDA) shipments in the third quarter last year.

Shipments grew 86 percent from one year ago because of high demand for PDAs that feature GPS navigation capabilities.

Mio Technology announced yesterday that it would launch a new service next month that offered real-time information on weather, parking space availability and traffic conditions to local users for free.

Mio Technology is the marketing arm of MiTAC International Corp (神達電腦), the world's largest GPS contract maker.

MiTAC branched out into the high-margin GPS-device market in November 2003 with the Mio brand.

MiTAC, which also produces desktop computers, motherboards and servers, is expected to churn out a total of 7 million GPS devices this year, up from last year's 4.5 million, according to Wang.

There is no plan to separate its own brand business from contract production, as clients are not concerned about a differentiation as long as MiTAC continues to offer them competitive production and pricings, he said.

MiTAC shares closed down 1.2 percent to NT$40.75 on the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday.
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