Giantplus seeing China white-box handset orders rebound

1 February 2008
Taiwan-based small- to medium-size LCD panel and LCM maker Giantplus Technology has seen its orders from China-based white-box handset makers rebound in January amid strong demand for the Lunar New Year holidays, according to the company.
The company revealed that nearly 80-90% of its white-box handset customers have started preparing orders and thus Giantplus expects its revenues in January to rebound to around NT$782 million (US$24.2 million), the peak level it generated in November 2007.
Commenting on the recent heavy snows in China, the Taiwan-based maker said its plant in Kunshan did see some impact, with revenues of NT$10 million affected. However, as the plant is going to be offline during the holidays, the affect will not continue, Giantplus stated.
Regarding handset panel inventory, the company stressed there are no problems, except in the 2.4- and 2.8-inch segments, for which the company is preparing more stock.
With the company recently gaining orders from Altek, Giantplus said the move can reduce its risk from paying too much concentration on handset panel development. Demand from digital cameras is the second largest application in the small- to medium size panel market and the company is positive about the market potential, Giantplus pointed out.

White-box handset demand to stabilize after Lunar New Year, say IC designers

16 January 2008
While MediaTek's sales guidance trim raises concerns over white-box handset demand trends from China in the first quarter of 2008, some IC design houses from Taiwan project that the demand will stabilize after the Lunar New Year in early February.
MediaTek, which has strong sales exposure to China-based white-box handset makers, said the slow demand from its customers is a reflection of the China government's macroeconomics control policy. The number one design house in Taiwan projected that demand from these customers should warm up after the Lunar New Year.
Sources at white-box handset makers echoed MediaTek's sentiment, saying that the control does pose a stronger impact over companies that have an unstable sales record. When the cost for securing investment funds grows, and demand does not trend as strong as expected, many of these companies hold off their procurements for components.
When the inventory effectively eases after the Lunar New Year, demand is expected to resume growth amid the effect of the upcoming Beijing 2008 Olympics.
Some industry players highlighted that the growing popularity of handsets supporting dual SIM cards has added to the volatility. Demand for these handsets soared in the third quarter of 2007 as evident in the over 45% sequential sales growth at MediaTek in the quarter. Quarterly handset chips shipments hit 40-50 million units also, the players noted.
However, as demand for these handsets was not sustained, MediaTek thus requires a longer-than-expected time to clear its inventory, they remarked.

Spreadtrum founder to visit Taiwan partner for touch screen handset solutions

3 Nov, 2007

The founder of China-based Spreadtrum Communications, a fast growing handset chip supplier, will visit Taiwan this week to attend an investors conference of Chip Hope, its local partner for the development of complete handset-use solutions featuring touch functionalities, market sources said.
Fan Yongren (transliterated from Chinese), currently vice president of Spreadtrum, will attend Chip Hope's investors conference on December 5 and will also call on Taiwan's handset vendors and makers, the sources said.
Spreadtrum, whose handset chip shipments for 2007 are expected to top five million units, has been working with Chi Hope to integrate Taiwan-based Elan Microelectronics' touch panel controllers into complete handset solutions, the sources noted.
Fan's attending Chip Hope's investor conference is meant to be a display of the strong partnership between the companies, the sources commented.
Spreadtrum hopes the complete solutions can boost its share of the white-box handset market in China, the sources said, adding a white-box handset with a touch screen can sell for more than 1,000 yuan (US$135), while one without a touch screen is only less than half of the sum.
The Chinese white-box handset market will grow to 100 million units in 2008 from 70-80 million units in 2007, the sources estimate.
Spreadtrum, Chip Hope and Elan are all optimistic about the shipments of the handset solutions they have co-developed, the sources said, adding the prices of their solutions are 30-40% cheaper than the US$18 for the one that Apple has adopted for the iPhone.
They expect ship 50,000-100,000 units of the solutions monthly during the first quarter of 2008, with a monthly goal of 100,000-500,000 units thereafter.