TAIPEI: Cellphone shipments from Taiwan for the second quarter are likely to fall almost 10 percent from the first quarter due to slowing global demand for select flagship models of some Taiwanese brands, according to Taiwan-based Digitimes Research.
The research firm on Friday said that the expected drop in cellphone shipments also reflected the end of a product life cycle of several Sony models.
Sony Corp is a major client of Taiwanese contract electronics makers.
Digitimes said that cellphone shipments from Taiwan for the April-to-June period are expected to total 12.6 million units, down 9.7 percent from a quarter earlier and declining 42.9 percent from a year earlier.
With limited shipments of its latest flagship model the HTC 10, HTC Corp is expected to ship 3.2 million units in the second quarter, lagging behind Asustek Computer Inc , which is expected to ship 4.4 million units due to sales of its ZenFone 2 series.
The combined shipments of Taiwanese cellphone brands, such as HTC, Austek and Acer Inc, could rise 15 percent sequentially in the second quarter, but some contract makers might see their shipments trend lower in the same quarter, Digitimes said.
The research firm added that the affected contract cellphone makers, such as Compal Electronics Inc ), Hon Hai Precision Industry Co, Arima Communications Corp and Wistron Corp, are expected to suffer a 15 percent sequential fall in shipments in the second quarter.