The balance between supply and demand of WLAN products has remained unstable since the fourth quarter of 2008. Taiwan WLAN makers received short-lead time orders in the first quarter of 2009 due to inventory replenishment from networking retailers.
Taiwan shipped 16.4 million optical disc drives (ODDs) in the fourth quarter of 2008, down 11.8% sequentially and 23.7% from the same period one year earlier.
Shipments in the third quarter grew only slightly, as orders from Motorola continued to decline and orders from Nokia were weaker than expected. Shipments to Nokia were also delayed. Shipment proportion of entry-level handsets dropped to below 40% in the third quarter due to declined orders from Motorola, Reliance and Huawei.
Taiwan shipped 18.6 million optical disc drives (ODDs) in the third quarter of 2008, down 3.0% sequentially and 17.3% from the same period one year earlier.
Total shipments of Taiwan WLAN products in the third quarter were 55.3 million units, representing 8.7% sequential growth and 3.6% on-year growth, which is the lowest third-quarter shipments growth since 2006 due to the global financial crisis and lack of new applications.
Taiwan shipped 29.4 million notebook PCs in the second quarter of 2008, up 5.2% sequentially and 48.2% from the same period one year earlier, with the key growth driver being Netbook, which are now included in overall shipments.