- Promotions unleashed by brand-name mobile phone vendors, operators, and channel players in anticipation of holiday season demand generated a 9% year-on-year increase in Taiwanese mobile phone market shipment volume in the fourth quarter of 2003, reaching 1.6 million units. Brand name vendors and operators continued subsidizing high-end handsets bundled with service, which stimulated demand in the mid-range to high-end segment. Additionally, brand-name players dramatically reduced inventories and promoted sales of phones in the mid-range to value-line segments, competing on price to further penetrate the mass market. Handsets shipped by channel and other players such as electronics stores for promotions also fueled volume growth.

With over 30 brands and over 100 models competing on the market, the absolute influence that brand names once enjoyed has yielded to price factors. Overall value rather than advanced specifications and high quality has become a stronger draw for consumers. Taiwanese brands, playing off home market advantages and experience gained through manufacturing for international vendors, have rolled out high-value handsets. US and European makers such as Motorola and Nokia and other East Asian brands such as LG have directly adopted low prices on new models to inspire purchases, rather than starting at higher price points and testing their way down.

Combined with rollouts of color display and camera phones to cozy up to increasingly price sensitive mid-range to high-end consumers, mid to high-end phones have seen a heavy increase in volume. With such models fueling market growth, Taiwanese mobile phone market shipment value grew 5% year-on-year to reach NT$10.4 billion (US$311.5 million; US$1 = NT$33.4). However, in the stead of intensified price competition, ASP (Average Selling Price) continued to decline.

In 2004, rollouts of additional value-line, mid-range, and high-end phones will further broaden product lines, and some Korean brand-name players are expected to adjust their channel strategies to boost bundling with operators and channel players. However, considering Taiwan's saturated market, and given that handset functionality and service are not seeing a noticeable evolution, market growth is limited. Taiwanese market shipment volume is thus forecasted to reach under 1.6 million units in the first quarter of 2004 and 6.2 million units throughout 2004, growing little from 2003 levels.