Shipment volume of the Taiwanese smartphone industry posed 112.2 million units in the fourth quarter of 2015, down 2.0% year-on-year, according to MIC (Market Intelligence & Consulting Institute), a Taipei-based IT research institute. "This is attributed mainly to modest shipments for Apple iPhones and sluggish shipment performance of HTC. In addition, some clients such as Sony have revised down their orders, while some have seen their smartphones near the end-of-life cycle," says Eddie Han, industry analyst with MIC.

"Shipment value also declined 4.8% year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2015 to US$21.6 billion, due largely in part to the increasing share of low-cost smartphones priced around US$150, such as the HTC Desire 626 and ASUS ZenFone Go."

Taiwanese Mobile Phone Shipment Volume, 1Q 2014 - 1Q 2016

Thousand Units

Source: MIC, February 2016

Foxconn and Pegatron continued to be the first and second largest smartphone contract manufacturers in terms of shipment volume in the fourth quarter of 2015, due to orders placed by Apple. Inventec ranked fourth owing to its long-term partnership with Xiaomi; HTC secured the fourth spot because of the Desire 626 and One A9. With its clients' products entering the end-of-life cycle, Compal ranked fifth. While smartphones supporting LTE and TD-LTE technologies have become mainstream, the number of HSPA-enabled smartphones however is decreasing. "Since there are already over 85% of 4G smartphones in China, we believe 4G-enabled smartphones are about to enter the growth phase in emerging markets such as India and Indonesia.

Shipment volume of the Taiwanese smartphone industry will hit the lowest level in the first quarter of 2016 at 75.7 million units, down 35.5% sequentially and 24.4% year-on-year. "Aside from Apple's decision to revise its orders down, the fact that Taiwanese new branded smartphones, except flagship models, will not begin shipments until the second and third quarter of 2016 will likely have a major impact on Taiwan's smartphone shipment performance in the first quarter," explains Han. On top of that, several Taiwanese contract manufacturers are still working on securing Android smartphone orders from some branded vendors. Consequently, the industry is estimated to see steady growth in shipment volume after some Android smartphones start shipping in the second quarter of 2016.

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