TAIPEI: Cellphone shipments from Taiwan for the second quarter of this year will likely fall almost 10 percent from a quarter earlier due to slowing global demand for select flagship models of some Taiwanese brands, according to Taiwan-based Digitimes Research.
The research firm said that the expected drop in cellphone shipments also reflected the end of a product life cycle of several models under the name Sony, which is a major client of Taiwanese contract electronics makers. Digitimes said that cellphone shipments from Taiwan for the April-June period are expected to total 12.60 million units, down 9.7 percent from a quarter earlier. The second quarter figure could even fall 42.9 percent from a year earlier, it said. Taiwan-based smartphone brand HTC Corp. is expected to see limited shipments of its latest flagship model — the HTC 10 — which was unveiled in April and has gone on global sales, according to Digitimes.
Taiwan’s local media have reported that the HTC 10 received a lackluster reception in the China market, but HTC has denied this. Although HTC has also launched budget models to boost its overall sales, Digitimes said that the vendor could ship 3.2 million units in the second quarter, lagging behind Asustek Computer Inc., which is expected to ship 4.4 million units.
Asustek is a Taiwanese PC brand which has branched out into making smartphones in recent years in a bid to diversify its product portfolio and alleviate the impact from a continually weak global PC market. Digitimes said that Asustek is expected to continue to benefit from the sales of its ZenFone 2 series in the second quarter. It will likely unveil the ZenFone 3 model in the second half of this year, Digitimes said.
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 may 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, Digitimes said.
