Market Intelligence Center (MIC), a Taipei-based industry research house, indicated that the Taiwanese PDA industry is expected to ship 4.2 million units in the fourth quarter, up 20% sequentially, pushed by the peak retail season. For the full year of 2005, shipment volume is forecasted at 13.7 million units, representing annual growth of 52%. The production value is expected to reach US$3,166 million, a growth of 74% year-on-year.

According to MIC, in the third quarter of 2005 shipment volume of the Taiwanese PDA industry hit 3.5 million units, up 51.8% year-on-year and 8.7% sequentially, thanks to large orders for phone PDAs (Personal Digital Assistant) from Palm and HP and the continuing growth of GPS (Global Positioning System) PDA shipments.

ASP (Average Selling Price) dropped to US$228 in the third quarter, from the previous quarter US$235, due to Palm's value-line PDA orders and the fact that older phone PDA models were approaching the end of their run, increasing the shipment share of models priced under US$100 and models priced between US$201-US$350. As a result, shipment value reached US$790 million, only modest sequential growth of 6%, but ASP showed considerable growth in comparison with US$179 in the same period last year.

Although brand-name vendors, such as HP, Dell, and Acer, reduced orders for pure PDAs, these PDAs benefited from large orders for Palm's Z22, increasing its shipments to 975,000 units, for a share of 28.2%. After the shortage of Intel's application processors was resolved in the second quarter, shipments of GPS PDA with built-in GPS soared, leading to increased inventories in the channels. Consequently, in the third quarter GPS PDA shipments grew only slightly to 1.2 million units, with the shipment share remaining at the previous quarter's level of 34.5%. Combined shipment volume of pure PDA and GPS PDA amounted to 2.2 million units in the third quarter, up 2.9% year-on-year and 7.8% sequentially.

Looking at product mix in the coming quarters, the rollout of new phone PDA models featuring WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) and CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) 2000 1xEV-DO (Evolution Data Only) specifications at year-end will boost the phone PDA shipment volume to 1.6 million units in the fourth quarter, up 21% sequentially, for a 38 % share of the overall volume. The effect of new products will continue into the first quarter of 2006, helping to boost phone PDA shipment volume to an estimated 1.8 million units.

Due to the peak-season effect, GPS PDA shipment volume is expected hit 1.5 million units in the fourth quarter. In the first quarter of 2006, the Western European market will enter the winter period, when travel activities will plunge. As a result, it is estimated that GPS PDA shipment volume will drop to 1.4 million units, down 5.6% sequentially.

"Up to now, Taiwan has been responsible for the production of phone PDAs with relatively high technology entry-barriers, while PDAs with lower entry-barriers have been produced in China," said Stone Wu, an analyst with MIC. "The high shipment growth of phone PDAs in the third quarter thus increased the production share of Taiwan to 47.4% in the third quarter, with the total production in Taiwan reaching 1.6 million units. Shares of production areas will continue to be affected by the changes in the shipment volumes of phone PDAs and pure PDAs," he added.  

The Taiwanese PDA industry accounted for about 80% of worldwide production in the third quarter. Europe and the United States were still the main markets for PDAs, absorbing over 95% of the shipment volume. GPS PDA shipments to the European market continued to rise, as Palm has started to ship its Treo 650 offering to Western European carriers since the third quarter, boosting the shipment share for Europe to 58.4% in the third quarter, up from the 31% during the same period last year. By contrast, due to limited GPS PDA sales, the shipment share for the North American market plunged to 36.9%, down from the 64.4% during the same period last year.

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About MIC

Market Intelligence Center, based in Taipei, Taiwan, was founded in 1987. MIC is Taiwan's premier IT industry research and consulting firm providing intelligence, in-depth analysis, and strategic consulting services on global IT product and technology trends, focusing on markets and industries in Asia-Pacific. MIC is part of the Institute for Information Industry. https://mic.iii.org.tw/english