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Market optimism boosts shares of local GPS makers

Shares of global positioning system (GPS) device makers led by MiTAC International Corp (神達) soared yesterday on the back of market optimism.

MiTAC shares closed up 4.4 percent to NT$42.70 (US$1.30) on the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday, the highest since hitting NT$41.5 in January.

Other GPS component makers also saw rises.

GlobalSat Technology Corp (環天衛星科技), a GPS receiver maker, jumped by the 7 percent daily limit to NT$93.4 on the Gretai Securities Market.

For its part, shares of Royaltek Co (鼎天), a GPS engine board and module producer, rose 3 percent to NT$80.1 on the GRETAI.

`rosy prospects'

"The prospects are rosy as GPS sales are usually strong during the second and fourth quarters, which differs from the IT industry, whose peak usually lies in the second half," said Vincent Chen (陳豊丰), an analyst at CLSA Ltd.

With branded shipments -- including Mio and Navman -- accounting for over 50 percent of MiTAC's target of 8 million units this year, compared to 30 percent to 35 percent in the past, MiTAC has turned into a branded GPS maker instead of just a contract maker, he said.

MiTAC plans to ship 8 million GPS devices this year, including those made for other companies -- an increase of 77 percent from the 4.5 million units last year.

The maker already shipped more than 1 million devices in the first quarter -- double the quantity for the same period last year.

climbing

MiTAC acquired the US-based Navman brand in March for US$16 million in cash, paving the way to become the world's second-largest GPS brand.

The acquisition boosted MiTAC's brand market share from 8.9 percent to 17.6 percent.

Banking on the strong potential of portable navigation devices, Synnex Technology International Corp (聯強國際), Asia's largest IT product distributor, announced yesterday that it had started selling GPS devices made by the world's No. 1 brand, TomTom NV, in Taiwan.

TomTom will be added to the Mio and Panasonic products Synnex has been promoting, a Synnex statement said.

TomTom One

The first product to be marketed is TomTom One, which is said to offer ease of use, portability, proprietary touchscreen technology and a sleek new design, for a retail price of less than NT$9,000.

Earlier this month, TomTom announced the implementation of its Asia-Pacific headquarters in Taiwan.

It hopes the move will serve as a stepping stone for further expansion in the region.
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