Dbtel Inc (
The 25-year-old Dbtel, which started to sell brandname handsets two and half years ago after ending a partnership with Motorola Inc, sold around 4.92 million handsets last year, Dbtel spokesperson Fanny Chuang (
"As handset demand this year appears strong, I believe Dbtel has the potential to hit that goal" of doubling sales, Chuang said.
Chuang said her company already saw signs of growing replacement demand for camera phones in the fourth quarter of last year.
The private Topology Research Institute (
Topology predicted global camera phone shipments to jump to approximately 100 million units this year.
Dbtel claims to be Taiwan's No.1 mobile-phone brand by unit sales, ahead of BenQ Corp (
"In addition to better market demand, the expansion into middle and high ends this year will also fuel unit sales," Chuang added.
Dbtel is scheduled to unveil its first high-end mobile phone with multiple functions, including still pictures and video, she said.
The company plans to roll out around 20 models this year, most of them equipped with built-in digital cameras, according to Chuang. Dbtel has allocated about 5 percent of its annual sales over the past 10 years to developing new phones, she said.
The company said its consolidated revenues last year more than doubled to about NT$17.49 billion from NT$8.15 billion achieved the year before.
Some 90 percent of the company's sales came from China, with the rest coming from Taiwan and Southeast Asia.
Sales of brand-name phones grew at a faster pace to NT$16.58 billion last year, up from NT$6.95 billion in 2002, according to Chuang.
Dbtel shares declined by 1.35 percent, or NT$0.5 to end at NT$36.50 last Friday.
Taiwan’s rapidly aging population is fueling a sharp increase in homes occupied solely by elderly people, a trend that is reshaping the nation’s housing market and social fabric, real-estate brokers said yesterday. About 850,000 residences were occupied by elderly people in the first quarter, including 655,000 that housed only one resident, the Ministry of the Interior said. The figures have nearly doubled from a decade earlier, Great Home Realty Co (大家房屋) said, as people aged 65 and older now make up 20.8 percent of the population. “The so-called silver tsunami represents more than just a demographic shift — it could fundamentally redefine the
Businesses across the global semiconductor supply chain are bracing themselves for disruptions from an escalating trade war, after China imposed curbs on rare earth mineral exports and the US responded with additional tariffs and restrictions on software sales to the Asian nation. China’s restrictions, the most targeted move yet to limit supplies of rare earth materials, represent the first major attempt by Beijing to exercise long-arm jurisdiction over foreign companies to target the semiconductor industry, threatening to stall the chips powering the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. They prompted US President Donald Trump on Friday to announce that he would impose an additional
China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空) said it expects peak season effects in the fourth quarter to continue to boost demand for passenger flights and cargo services, after reporting its second-highest-ever September sales on Monday. The carrier said it posted NT$15.88 billion (US$517 million) in consolidated sales last month, trailing only September last year’s NT$16.01 billion. Last month, CAL generated NT$8.77 billion from its passenger flights and NT$5.37 billion from cargo services, it said. In the first nine months of this year, the carrier posted NT$154.93 billion in cumulative sales, up 2.62 percent from a year earlier, marking the second-highest level for the January-September
Asian e-commerce giant Shein’s (希音) decision to set up shop in a historic Parisian department store has ruffled feathers in the fashion capital. Anger has been boiling since Shein announced last week that it would open its first permanent physical store next month at BHV Marais, an iconic building that has stood across from Paris City Hall since 1856. The move prompted some French brands to announce they would leave BHV Marais, but the department store had already been losing tenants over late payments. Aime cosmetics line cofounder Mathilde Lacombe, whose brand was among those that decided to leave following