7 January 2008
The two leading Taiwan OEM handset makers – Compal Communications and Arima Communications – both saw their handset shipments fall short of their respective targets in 2007 due to reduced orders from clients, according to market sources.
Compal shipped 10.9 million handsets in the fourth quarter of 2007, bringing the company's total shipments for all of 2007 to 47.8 million units, down 27% on year and also lower than its revised target of 50 million units, said sources at Compal.
Accordingly, Compal's revenues for 2007 were down 31.9% on year, to NT$48.74 billion (US$1.5 billion), according to company data.
However, market sources expect Compal's revenues to rebound strongly in the second half of 2008, buoyed by shipments of CDMA handsets to Nokia and shipments of smartphones to other clients.
Compal's handset shipments for the first quarter of this year are likely to grow marginally from the fourth quarter of 2007, with total shipments for 2008 expected to reach 53-58 million units, estimated the market sources.
In other news, Arima shipped 9.25 million handsets in 2007, compared to 13 million units shipped in 2006 and its target of 14-16 million units for 2007, according to company sources.
For all of 2007, Arima's consolidated revenues totaled NT$18.42 billion, down 25.7% from the previous year, according to company data.
Arima expects its handset shipments to again top 14-16 million units in 2008, according to estimates by sources at the company.
