PDA Phones Record Booming Business

MIC: In 2005, total shipment volume of the Taiwanese PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) industry hit 13.5 million units, for annual growth of 49%. Owing to the brisk sales of high-priced PDA phones on the popularity of push e-mail, share of PDA phones amid the total shipment volume of Taiwanese PDAs advanced to over 40%, boosting its shipment value to US$3.2 billion, 78% higher than 2004.

In the fourth quarter of 2005, due to the peak season effect and the rollout of new products, shipment volume of the Taiwanese PDA industry hit a record high with a 34.7% year-on-year and 13.9% sequential jump to 3.9 million units. Due to the smooth shipment of new PDA phones adopting a Windows Mobile 5.0 operating system and the substitution of Win CE-based pure GPS (global Positioning System) by GPS PDAs with a higher price tag of around US$200, ASP advanced to US$259, up from US$229 in the third quarter. Shipment value topped the US$1 billion mark for the first time, compared with US$687 million during the same period of 2004 and US$791 million in the third quarter of 2005.

In the fourth quarter, PDA phones adopting a Windows Mobile 5.0 operating system successfully substituted old models adopting a Windows Pocket PC 2003 operating system. Meanwhile, Kinpo and Quanta also joined in the PDA phone industry. As a result, shipment volume of Taiwanese PDA phones jumped to 1.9 million units, up from 1.3 million units in the third quarter, accounting for 47% of the total Taiwanese PDA shipment volume.

In order to enhance their price competitiveness, major GPS PDA makers, such as MiTAC, Lite-On, Wistron, Compal, and d-Media, switched their medium- and low-priced GPS PDAs to Win CE operating systems, which requires lower license fees and hardware specifications. Such pure GPS offerings without PIM (Personal Information Management) functionality were met with lower demand, causing fourth quarter shipment volume of GPS PDAs to fall by 797,000 units from 1.2 million units in the third quarter, for a decline of 33%. Due to the higher-than-expected orders from Palm, shipment volume of pure PDAs hit 1.3 million units, up 30% sequentially. Overall, shipment volume of Taiwanese PDAs, including GPS PDAs and pure PDAs, amounted to two million units, down 3.8% year-on-year and 13.4% sequentially.

In 2006, total shipment volume of the Taiwanese PDA industry is projected at 19.2 million units, for phenomenal growth of 42% over 2005. As major brand vendors, such HP, Palm, and Acer, will tap the PDA phone market by outsourcing production to Taiwanese makers, it is estimated that in 2006 total shipment volume of Taiwanese PDA phones will reach 12 million units, for a whopping 125% increase over 2005. Due to the increasing substitution of pure GPSs adopting a Win CE operating system for GPS PDAs, shipment volume of GPS PDAs is expected to record moderate growth of 13% in 2006, to 4.2 million units. Excepting the existing production outsourced by Palm, HP, and Dell to Taiwanese makers, no plans have been made to launch new pure PDAs. Therefore, it is expected that total shipment volume of Taiwanese pure PDAs will reach only three million units, a steep decline of 33% from the level in 2005.

In the first quarter of 2006, due to the seasonal factor and large shipment decline of pure PDAs, shipment volume of Taiwanese PDAs is estimated at 3.7 million units, down 5.3% sequentially. Shipment volumes of PDA phones, GPS PDAs, and pure PDAs will amount to nearly two million units, 875,000 units, and 900,000 units, for sequential growth rates of 5.3%, 9.8%, and negative 30%, respectively. In the second quarter, due to the mass production of PDA phones and the peak-season effect for GPS PDAs in Western Europe, shipment volume of Taiwanese PDAs is likely to reach 4.2 million units, up 11.5% sequentially. PDA Phones Publ 20060317