Taiwan’s smartphone shipments will reach 251 million units this year, marking a 22.5 percent increase from last year’s level, an information technology market research institute forecast yesterday.
Meanwhile, smartphone output value is expected to post 19.7 percent year-on-year growth and top US$54.2 billion, the Market Intelligence and Consulting Institute (MIC, 資策會) under the Institute for Information Industry, said in a research note.
The report said that last year, Taiwan’s smartphone shipments fell short of expectations because of patent lawsuits and insufficient supply of components.
Now that the lawsuits have been resolved, smartphone shipments should grow this year, the report said, referring to a settlement of patent disputes between Taiwan’s HTC Corp (宏達電) and US consumer electronics giant Apple Inc.
HTC and Apple announced in November last year that they had agreed to settle their global patent disputes through the dismissal of all existing lawsuits and a 10-year license agreement, ending a legal battle that had festered since March 2010.
The MIC report said that average selling prices have been on a downward trend because major brand makers have focused on tapping emerging markets.
As local contract manufacturers have enhanced their technological prowess in designing and producing 4G LTE (long-term evolution) devices, the report forecast that the average handset unit selling price would only see a modest decrease, from US$221 to US$216, this year.
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