Taiwanese mobile phone shipments are estimated to have reached close to 10 million units in the third quarter of 2003, growing 24% year-on-year and 19.7% sequentially. Receiving contracts for GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) models from Motorola, Siemens, and Panasonic, Taiwanese makers successfully applied experience gained from overcoming previous learning curves to accommodate international vendors' time-to-market demands. Meeting delivery times at the end of the third quarter, the Taiwanese mobile phone industry escaped the shadow of SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) and inventory problems in China suffered during the first half of 2003.

Taiwanese mobile phone industry product mix saw pronounced shifts in the third quarter due to the mid-range to high-end GPRS models outsourced by Motorola, Siemens, and Panasonic, as well as the start of mass production of Microsoft Smartphone 2002. As Taiwanese makers fall in line with GPRS mobile data trends and build off a year-long learning curve, product mix is seen a greater amount of color display, camera module, and MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) functionality. In the third quarter of 2003 GPRS models witnessed a huge increase in share to 35%, while purely voice-centric dual and triple band GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) models dropped to 55.2%. Due to such changes in product mix and the rollout of new models, shipment value is estimated to have reached US$720 million. ASP (Average Selling Price) jumped to US$72.8, the largest ASP seen over the past nine quarters.  

In the fourth quarter of 2003 heavy demand is expected to issue from international vendors as they simultaneously serve US, European, and Asia Pacific markets, as well strong seasonal demand during the holiday season. Although insufficient production capacity among Taiwanese players and short component supply threatens to hamper shipment volume, Taiwanese mobile phone shipments are forecasted to reach a record high of 13.7 million units.