Taiwanese handset shipments for the fourth quarter are expected to top 26 million on the back of rising demand for smartphones and increasing outsourcing by foreign brand vendors, an electronics industry and market research firm said yesterday.
Luke Lin (林俊吉), an analyst and project manager with Digitimes Research, said fourth--quarter handset shipments would rise 23.8 percent from the third quarter to 26.26 million units, which would also represent a 58 percent increase from a year earlier.
Lin said Taiwan was expected to account for 6.8 percent of global handset shipments in the fourth quarter, up from 5.8 percent in the third quarter.
Taiwanese handset shipments in the third quarter totaled 21.22 million units, up 33.9 percent from the second quarter and 27.6 percent from a year earlier, the report said.
Lin said Taiwan-based smartphone maker HTC Corp (宏達電) was expected to post record-high shipments of more than 9 million units in this quarter on rising demand.
In an investors’ conference last month, HTC predicted that fourth-quarter shipments would reach 9 million units, up from the 6.8 million units recorded in the third quarter.
HTC also said that fourth--quarter sales were likely to hit a record-high of NT$100 billion (US$3.31 billion), up from the third quarter’s NT$75.85 billion.
HTC ranked as the eighth--largest handset vendor in the third quarter, according to Gartner Inc, an -information technology research and advisory firm.
Lin said handset vendors such as LG Electronics Co, Sony -Ericsson Mobile Communications Ltd and Motorola Inc were expected to increase their outsourcing to Taiwanese manufacturers, as these foreign firms would unveil new models in the fourth quarter.
Outsourcing is expected to continue rising next year as these foreign brands launch more new models in the second and third quarters, Lin said.
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