Mobile telecom carrier Taiwan Mobile (TWM) plans to procure 1.38 million handsets for contract-bundled sale in 2011, increasing 7.81% from 2010, with over 40% to be smartphones, according to COO Cliff Lai for consumer business group.
TWM has suffered from short supply of smartphones since August 2010, resulting in only 30% of total procurement volume for smartphones so far in the year, Lai pointed out. Smartphones, including HTC models, iPhone 4 and Samsung Galaxy i9000, has been, and will be, 30-50% short of market demand until the end of 2010, Lai indicated.
The short supply of smartphones is because ODMs have been unable to expand production capacities to catch up with fast growing global demand as well as international vendors, in arranging their shipments, have given first priority to North America and Europe to meet the upcoming peak sales period, Lai analyzed.
TWM has been the exclusive Taiwan sales agent for RIM BlackBerry handsets for four years, with one-third of more than 30,000 users being business users, Lai noted. As RIM will launch several BlackBerry models in 2011, sales are expected to increase 50-100% from 2010, Lai pointed out.
Article translated by Adam Hwang
