In the fourth quarter of 2007, orders from Motorola and Sony Ericsson, the two chief clients for Taiwan's handset makers, vendors were lower than expected. But shipments still managed to grow significantly, chiefly driven by smartphone shipments and Foxlink's shipments to China-based Huawei.
Taiwan shipped 43.45 million NICs in 3Q, up 9.8% sequentially and 37% from the same period one year earlier, while wireless router (WR) shipments reached 9.9 million units, up 9.7% from the previous quarter and 12.4% on year.
Taiwan shipped 24 million notebooks in the third quarter of 2007, an increase of 20.9% from the previous quarter and 36.8% from the same period one year earlier.
Significant increases in Cal-Comp Electronics' shipments to Indian telecom carrier Reliance, and a steady rise in Sony Ericsson orders boosted Taiwan handset shipments sequentially in the third quarter. But on an on-year basis, third-quarter shipments declined because of drops in shipments from BenQ, and decreased orders from Motorola. BenQ had yet to recover from the bankruptcy of its subsidiary BenQ Mobile, while Motorola's performance remained weak.
Taiwan's DSC shipments continued to be driven by seasonality in the third quarter. But not all clients increased orders for the high season. Kodak, Hewlett Packard (HP), Olympus, Casio and Sanyo increased their orders significantly, while orders from Pentax and Samsung Electronics grew only slightly. Orders from Sony, Nikon, and some regional and channel brands dropped.
In the second quarter, network interface card (NIC) shipments were up 7.5% sequentially and 45% on year to 39.6 million units with Mini PCI modules being the key shipments driver. Growing demand from the channel following the ratification of the 802.11n draft resulted in a significant rise in wireless router (WR) shipments (which include access points (AP) in this report) to the retail market in the second quarter, while WR shipments to telecom carriers also steadily grew.
Taiwan shipped 10.6 million digital cameras in the second quarter, up 10.7% sequentially and 7.4% from the same period one year earlier, amid increased orders from channel brands.
Over the past several quarters, Taiwan-based ODD (optical disk drive) makers’ shipments had continued to decline due to low-price competition from major makers including Toshiba Samsung Storage Technology (TSST). However, with Windows Vista boosting PC demand combined with the Korean maker phasing out some ODD production (Other than DVD-Burner) in the second quarter, Taiwan ODD makers’ quarterly shipments were up 17%, the first sequential increase in two years.
Decreased orders from Motorola – which is one of the biggest clients for Taiwan’s handset makers – for existing models and the US vendor’s slow pace in launching new models continued to hit Taiwan handset makers in the second quarter, as their shipments dropped 13.9% sequentially. On-year shipments fell 37% because of sharp drops in BenQ’s handset shipments compared to the second quarter of last year when BenQ Mobile – which has now been declared insolvent – was still in business.
Taiwan shipped 19.83 million notebooks in the second quarter of 2007, a sequential increase of 6%. Although there were predictions that consumers would delay their notebook purchases in the second quarter, as Intel launched its new Centrino platform (Santa Rosa), notebook vendors pushed a low pricing strategy to boost demand of their older models, and shipments from notebook makers exceeded expectations.
Handset shipments from Taiwan-based manufacturers dropped 30.2% to 24.56 million units in the first quarter of 2007 as the impact of the bankruptcy of BenQ Mobile continued to be felt. Motorola, a chief client for Taiwan-based ODM/OEM handset makers, had an unsatisfactory first quarter and started adjusting its product mix, resulting in decreased orders for the manufacturers.
