Inventec Appliances Corp (英華達) yesterday signed a patent agreement with US mobile chipmaker Qualcomm Inc, which will facilitate the local mobile phone vendor's plan to launch its first branded third-generation (3G) phone in the first half of this year at the earliest.
Inventec, the handset manufacturing arm of contract computer maker Inventec Corp (英業達), sells mobile phones under the OKWAP brand, mostly in Taiwan and China.
"We believe this license agreement with Qualcomm, the leader in CDMA technologies, will enable us to maintain our leadership in the wireless market," company spokesman Michael Chen (陳烈宏) said in the statement released yesterday.
Under the terms of the worldwide royalty-bearing agreement, Qualcomm granted Inventec Appliances a patent license to develop, manufacture and sell CDMA2000 and WCDMA mobile phones and modem card products, it said.
Inventec Appliances said it plans to roll out its first branded 3G mobile phone by the end of next quarter.
Last year, own-brand handsets accounted for just 10 percent of Inventec Appliances' total revenues, compared to an approximate 85-percent share from the low-margin contract manufacturing business, according to the company.
Shares of Inventec Appliances bounced back by 6.1 percent to NT$147 (US$4.5) on the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday, ending four straight trading session losses on speculation there would be fewer orders from major clients.
Inventec Appliances makes the iPod video multimedia player for Apple Computer Inc, and global positioning system (GPS) navigators for Tom Tom.
Despite the near-term downside risk for the stock, Merrill Lynch analyst Tony Tseng (
Tseng expected the gross margin to climb to 8.7 percent this year and 8.9 percent next year, up from the 8.6 percent he estimated for last year.
Inventec Appliances is to ramp up new production lines for GPS devices and branded 3G and IP phones as well as networking devices in the third quarter, Tseng said.
While many analysts downgraded Inventec Appliances, Tseng maintained his "buy" rating on the stock.
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