Mobile-phone manufacturers in Taiwan expect the handset market to grow this year on the strength of phone upgrades and new Internet-like data services, industry players said yesterday.
"The cost of a new cellphone is lower this year than last, and we believe people will be looking for replacements this year," said Simone Liu, a marketing manager at DBTEL Inc (
GPRS, mobile data services that run at speeds up to 115 kilobits per second (kbps), is already available throughout Taiwan. To access the system, consumers need to buy a GPRS-enabled mobile phone and sign up for the service.
Manufacturers and worldwide cellphone retailers such as Nokia Oyj, Motorola Inc and Ericsson AB were disappointed by flat handset sales last year. Sales forecasts for last year have plummeted from 430 million handsets to 380 million, according to the companies.
In Taiwan, new orders rolled in as these global players farmed out manufacturing. Some 12.9 million handsets were sold in Taiwan last year, a 34 percent rise on the year before, according to the Market Intelligence Center (
Siemens AG, the fifth biggest mobile maker, said its cellphone division finally returned to profitability after a tough year last year. DBTEL manufactures phones on behalf of Siemens.
The Siemens news sent DBTEL's share price up 1.3 percent to NT$24.3 yesterday on the Taiwan Stock Exchange. Benq Corp (明電), Taiwan's largest mobile-phone manufacturer, rose 2.8 percent to NT$54.5 per share.
Liu said DBTEL expects to make 15 million phones this year, up from just 3.5 million last year. Analysts called this prediction "massively optimistic."
Benq, the company formerly known as Acer Communications and Multimedia, also expects large sales increases this year.
Last year, the firm produced 7 million handsets for customers such as Motorola and this year will produce about 50 percent more phones, according to Eric Yu (
Benq is also hoping its customers, such as Motorola, will have a better year. The second largest mobile-phone company in the world is the top seller in China.
These firms will not fully rely on handset sales this year, however. Last year, while handset sales languished, both firms saw growth in other business.
Revenues at Benq grew 21 percent year on year last year, to a forecasted NT$58.8 billion, mainly because of stronger sales of its LCD computer screens. The firm sold 180,000 LCD screens and 400,000 CRT monitors, the box-like computer screens still widely used. It also sold 1.2 million CD-RW drives and DVD drives.
DBTEL's revenues dropped 46 percent last year to NT$4.68 billion because of lower mobile-phone sales. Sales of cordless phones helped make up for plummeting mobile-phone sales at DBTEL last year.
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