Shipments of feature phones by local contract handset makers declined nearly 22 percent quarter-on-quarter in the third quarter because major customers like Motorola Inc have reduced orders and shifted focus to fast-growing smartphones, a Taipei-based researcher said yesterday.
The result came as a disappointment to Market Intelligence and Consulting Institute (MIC, 資策會產業情報研究所) because it expected local handset makers to prop up shipments further in the third and fourth quarters by landing more new orders from South Korea’s LG Electronics or Sharp of Japan.
The two mobile phone vendors were more aggressive in farming out production of entry-level mobile phones in a move to expand global market share, MIC said in September.
Dashing that hope, local cellular phone makers, including Compal Communications Inc (華寶) and Arima Communications Corp (華冠), shipped 9.1 million units in the third quarter of last year, down from 11.7 million in the second quarter, MIC’s report showed.
That represented a 59 percent contraction on an annual basis, MIC said.
As “branded customers adjust their product lines and change manufacturing partners, it is expected that Taiwanese feature-phone manufacturers will see further declines ahead,” MIC handset industry analyst Joyce Chen (陳釧瑤) said in the report.
Motorola, a major customer for Taiwanese handset makers, set a distinct example, Chen said.
The US-based cellphone company has shifted its focus to Android-platform products and has started using more chipset solutions from Taiwan’s top handset chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) in low-end models, she said.
Those changes have cost local firms more orders, as they were less familiar with MediaTek’s chipset than their Chinese rivals, Chen said.
In addition, orders from Nokia and Sony Ericsson were also on the wane as their entry-level phones lost appeal, the report said.
Overall shipment value, however, dropped at a slower pace of 11.6 percent quarter-on-quarter to US$433 million in the third quarter as the average selling price rose nearly 12 percent to US$47 from US$42, MIC said.
Chen attributed the improvement to rising shipments of mid-range GPRS and EDGE models as well as WCDMA phones by contract handset makers Qisda Corp (佳世達) and Inventec Appliances Corp (英華達), MIC said.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained