South Korean electronics maker Samsung Electronics Co on Sunday forecast that the full-feature handset market would surge from 170 million units this year to 500 million units worldwide in 2012, a press statement released by its joint venture Samsung Mobile Display Co said yesterday.
Ryu Jae-hyun, director of the electronic company’s mobile marketing department in Taipei, vowed to seize a 30 percent market share in Taiwan by the end of the year, up from the current 19 percent, riding on total sales of between 6.5 million and 6.6 million units.
“This year alone, Samsung plans to roll out eight handsets in the first half and another 12 to 15 handsets in the second half,” he said.
Ryu’s estimates exceeded Merrill Lynch analysts Laura Chen (陳佳儀) and Daniel Kim’s earlier projection that Samsung would unveil between 10 and 20 Windows mobile-based smart phone models this year. In addition, Samsung Mobile Display said that smart phones with access to the Internet and a slew of other functions have witnessed increasing sales, while the simple mobile phone market lagged behind.
“Smart phones will make up 29 percent of the industry by 2012, compared with 14 percent in 2009,” the display maker’s statement said.
The display maker also expected touch-screens to become mainstream, prompting their wide adoption in mobile phones, digital cameras, global positioning system devices and media players, adding that 50 percent of the small digital devices produced in 2013 would use touch-screen technology.
Samsung Mobile Display also said that organic light-emitting diodes (OLED) would be used with 50 percent of all mobile phones over the next five years.
OLED displays are lighter and thinner and provide better picture quality, but are far more expensive than alternatives, such as liquid-crystal-displays.
Samsung Mobile Display, a joint venture between Samsung Electronics and Samsung SDI, was launched in January.
It specializes in the production and development of small to medium-sized panels. Research by US-based Strategy Analytics Inc showed that the total global handset market (simple handsets and smart phones combined) grew 4.9 percent in shipment volume to 1.18 billion units last year, from 1.12 billion units in 2007.
Nokia and Samsung claimed the top two spots last year with a market share of 39.8 percent and 16.7 percent respectively on shipments of 468.4 million and 196.6 million units each, Strategy Analytics’ data showed.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure