Shipments of feature mobile phones by Taiwanese companies fell at a slower-than-expected rate to 10.21 million units in the first quarter, Taipei-based Market Intelligence & Consulting Institute (MIC, 產業情報研究所) said yesterday.
The results beat MIC’s previous forecast of 9.42 million units in shipments, the researcher said in a report released yesterday.
“Taiwanese shipment volume did not experience the steep declines which were forecast and instead rebounded somewhat,” MIC said in the report, adding that local handset makers’ shipments have decreased in the first three months of the year from a year ago.
Taiwanese handset makers Compal Communications Inc (華寶通訊) and Arima Communication Corp (華冠通訊) have received rush orders in the first quarters because of demand from emerging markets including China, Brazil and India, MIC said in its report.
The first-quarter figure “still came as a surprise as market research houses around the globe predict continued steep declines of basic feature mobile phones, as they are being replaced by high-end, multi-function smart phones worldwide,” MIC said in the report.
Additionally, average selling price in the first three months of the year climbed to US$45 from the previous quarter’s US$43 as a result of increased shipments of 2.5-generation (2.5G), or enhanced data rates for GSM evolution (EDGE), models and the ending of production of some lower-priced feature phones, MIC said.
“At the end of November 2008, international vendors significantly reduced orders for the Taiwanese industry, causing a large-scale decline of Taiwanese basic/feature phone shipments; at the beginning of 2009, however, international vendors discovered that channel inventories started to decline. They thus released orders to their Taiwanese production partners to replenish inventories creating the rush order effect in the first quarter,” MIC industry analyst Eddie Tsai (蔡華展) wrote in his client note.
EDGE shipment share in the first quarter increased to 5.4 percent as Motorola Inc shifted its focus to EDGE in new basic/feature phone outsourcing.
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