TAIPEI, TAIWAN: According to the MIC (Market Intelligence Center), Taiwanese mobile phone shipment volume is likely to grow 27.2 percent sequentially to 31.8 million units in the fourth quarter of 2007.

For the full year 2007, however, the Taiwanese mobile phone industry's shipment volume is likely to drop 20.1 percent in comparison with 2006 to 97.4 million units, mainly due to the poor performance of the industry's major client Motorola and the effect of the BenQ-Siemens breakup.

In the third quarter of 2007, Taiwanese mobile phone shipment volume rebounded following four quarters of consecutive decline. Shipment volume shot up 31.2 percent sequentially to 25 million units, stimulated by increased contract-production orders from Sony Ericsson and Motorola and increased private label shipments. However, third-quarter shipment volume still represented a 12.7 percent year-on-year decline.

With higher shipment volume, shipment value of the Taiwanese mobile phone industry advanced 22.8 percent sequentially to US$927 million in the third quarter. However, the growth rate was lower than volume growth as ASP tumbled to US$37 due to the increased shipment share of value-line products tagged under US$50 to 85.6 percent, from the second quarter's 76 percent.

Compal saw its share of total Taiwanese mobile phone shipment volume fall to 46 percent in the third quarter, from the second quarter's 56.7 percent. This was mainly due to the expanding shipment volume of Calcomp for Indian telecom carrier Reliance and Arima's increased shipment of the T250 for Sony Ericsson. Compal did have new Motorola models, including the W156/W160 and the W206/W213, but due to shipment declines of older models, its shipment volume saw only small growth.

Due to difficulties in expanding business with the five major international brands, Taiwanese contract-production makers have switched their efforts to seeking private-label orders from telecom carriers.

An example would be the increased shipment of Calcomp for India's Reliance in the third quarter, which considerably boosted overall shipment volume of the Taiwanese mobile phone industry.

Meanwhile, after abandoning the BenQ OBM (Own Brand Manufacturing) business, Qisda will shift the focus of its contract-production operations to the telecom sector in Western Europe.