Taiwanese contract manufacturers are poised to grab a larger slice of the worldwide digital consumer electronics pie, as latest studies showed that their shipments in digital cameras, mobile phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs) will post nearly 50 percent growth this year.
Digital cameras manufactured by Taiwanese vendors will hit 32 million units this year, up 51 percent from last year. This translates to a global market share of 44 percent, according to a report released by Taipei-based market researcher Market Intelligence Center (MIC, 市場情報中心) last week.
Taiwan's global share is expected to rise to 50 percent next year, with production volumes passing 40 million units, the report said.
"Digital cameras have reached saturation in the mature markets of the US, Europe and Japan, and most brandname vendors are now slashing prices to attract users to upgrade to newer models with better functions," MIC analyst Marty Kung (
As US-based Kodak Eastman Co has been successful in pushing lower-priced camera models by bundling them with photo printers to boost sales, its rapid gain in market share will benefit Taiwanese contract manufacturers, he added.
Under pricing pressure, some major Japanese vendors, such as Nikon and Olympus, have released orders to local manufacturers in a bid to lower production costs, according to Kung.
This is good news for local first-tier camera assemblers, as improvements to their process technology means they are catching up with their Japanese peers. These makers, consisting of Premier Image Technology Corp (普立爾), Asia Optical Co (亞光), Ability Enterprise Co (佳能) and Altek Corp (華晶科技), have taken up 80 percent of the local market this year, Kung said.
Meanwhile, mobile phones produced in Taiwan are slated to grow to 76.8 million units this year, up 46.8 percent from last year, according to MIC's estimates.
"The whole year's growth will be mainly pushed by stable orders from Motorola and Sony Ericsson," said another MIC analyst Jeffrey Tai (
Based on the institute's forecast, the peak is expected to fall this quarter, bolstered by increased overseas and local orders. There will be 31 million units produced, which is 86 percent sequential growth and a 103 percent increase from a year ago.
According to Tai, as BenQ Mobile (明基行動通訊) -- the group established after BenQ Corp (明基) acquired Siemens AG's handset business -- started operating early this month, the orders it released to Taiwanese vendors will also help boost local shipments in the fourth quarter through early next year.
Another high-growth segment is PDAs, as local shipments are forecast to hit 13.73 million units by the year's end, up 52 percent from last year's number, MIC's forecast showed.
According to MIC's deputy general director Cynthia Chyn (
“There will be record-high volumes during the October-December period, as
branded vendors are set to introduce a slew of GPS PDAs and phone PDAs
specifically for the Christmas spending period,” Chyn said.
Shipments in the fourth quarter alone will hit 4.16 million units, posting
20 percent sequential growth and up 42 percent from a year ago, she said.
DAREDEVIL: Honnold said it had always been a dream of his to climb Taipei 101, while a Netflix producer said the skyscraper was ‘a real icon of this country’ US climber Alex Honnold yesterday took on Taiwan’s tallest building, becoming the first person to scale Taipei 101 without a rope, harness or safety net. Hundreds of spectators gathered at the base of the 101-story skyscraper to watch Honnold, 40, embark on his daredevil feat, which was also broadcast live on Netflix. Dressed in a red T-shirt and yellow custom-made climbing shoes, Honnold swiftly moved up the southeast face of the glass and steel building. At one point, he stepped onto a platform midway up to wave down at fans and onlookers who were taking photos. People watching from inside
A Vietnamese migrant worker yesterday won NT$12 million (US$379,627) on a Lunar New Year scratch card in Kaohsiung as part of Taiwan Lottery Co’s (台灣彩券) “NT$12 Million Grand Fortune” (1200萬大吉利) game. The man was the first top-prize winner of the new game launched on Jan. 6 to mark the Lunar New Year. Three Vietnamese migrant workers visited a Taiwan Lottery shop on Xinyue Street in Kaohsiung’s Gangshan District (崗山), a store representative said. The player bought multiple tickets and, after winning nothing, held the final lottery ticket in one hand and rubbed the store’s statue of the Maitreya Buddha’s belly with the other,
‘NATO-PLUS’: ‘Our strategic partners in the Indo-Pacific are facing increasing aggression by the Chinese Communist Party,’ US Representative Rob Wittman said The US House of Representatives on Monday released its version of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, which includes US$1.15 billion to support security cooperation with Taiwan. The omnibus act, covering US$1.2 trillion of spending, allocates US$1 billion for the Taiwan Security Cooperation Initiative, as well as US$150 million for the replacement of defense articles and reimbursement of defense services provided to Taiwan. The fund allocations were based on the US National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2026 that was passed by the US Congress last month and authorized up to US$1 billion to the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency in support of the
‘COMMITTED TO DETERRENCE’: Washington would stand by its allies, but it can only help as much as countries help themselves, Raymond Greene said The US is committed to deterrence in the first island chain, but it should not bear the burden alone, as “freedom is not free,” American Institute in Taiwan Director Raymond Greene said in a speech at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research’s “Strengthening Resilience: Defense as the Engine of Development” seminar in Taipei yesterday. In the speech, titled “Investing Together and a Secure and Prosperous Future,” Greene highlighted the contributions of US President Donald Trump’s administration to Taiwan’s defense efforts, including the establishment of supply chains for drones and autonomous systems, offers of security assistance and the expansion of
RSS