According to statistics of the ITIS project - a project initiated by Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs and conducted by Taipei-based MIC - Taiwanese basic/feature phone shipment volume is estimated at 17.01 million units in the fourth quarter of 2008, declining 17.9% compared to the previous quarter. ASP (Average Selling Price), however, increased considerably, from US$36 in the third quarter to US$44 in the fourth quarter. A major reason for this development was the shipment of several high-priced EDGE (Enhance Data rates for GSM Evolution), WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access), and CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) models by Motorola and Nokia. Another reason was the fluctuation of the US dollar exchange rate.
As the global economic slowdown affected demand for consumer electronics products, shipment volume of the Taiwanese basic/feature phone industry for the full-year 2008 reached approximately 75.56 million units, declining 18.6% compared to the shipment volume in 2007. Besides the fact that the traditional peak season in the second half of 2008 did not meet expectations, two major clients of the Taiwanese industry ?Motorola and Sony Ericsson ?had relatively weak performances in 2008, which also affected the Taiwanese industry.
The shipment share of EDGE products in the Taiwanese industry reached 2.1% in the fourth quarter of 2008, stimulated by EDGE product shipments of Motorola. Regarding CDMA products, besides shipments by FIH/CMCS, Foxlink, and IAC, the shipment of CCI also increased gradually. As a result, the shipment share of CDMA products increased 4.1 percentage points and reached 17%. WCDMA shipment share increased slightly to 0.7% due to Qisda's WCDMA product shipments. The share of GSM/GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) models fell to 80.2% in the fourth quarter as many of the new phones launched in the fourth quarter were EDGE models, pushing down GSM/GPRS shipments.
Looking ahead to worldwide mobile phone development in 2009, besides the continuing weak market demand, serious inventory problems could emerge as some brand-name vendors boosted shipments at the end of 2008 to meet their annual sales targets. These factors could pose severe challenges for the mobile phone industry in 2009. Some of the main issues for branded vendors in 2009 will be to reduce inventory levels and prepare for the expected market decline in 2009. Taiwanese manufacturers will go along with the adjustments by international brands. It can be foreseen that Taiwanese basic/feature phone shipment volume will shrink considerably in the first and second quarter of 2009.
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About MIC
Market Intelligence & Consulting Institute (MIC), 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
About ITIS
The ITIS (Industry and Technology Intelligence Services) project is managed by the Department of Industrial Technology of Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs. As part of the project, research is conducted in a variety of fields, including the ICT sector. The project serves both the public and private sector.