***Taiwan's Manufacturers Must Ramp up PDA Production
Many Taiwanese IT manufacturers believe that the next generation
of IT industry is moving to the Personal Digital Assistant (PDA)
or any handheld PC. Global PDA sales in 1999 reached 6.5 million
units and in 2000, it grew to 10 million units with a 60 percent
increase. And this year PDAs are predicted to reach 20 million
units. This is double compared to 2000 and with an adjustment
based on the market downturn. But the production output is far
from forecast. Most of the local manufacturers are receiving OEM
contracts from foreign companies such as Compaq, IBM and soon
Palm Pilot. Taiwanese computer manufacturers like Acer, Mitac,
First International Computer (FIC), Palmax and High Tech are
producing models supporting Linux or WinCE operating systems
(OS), hoping to attract Taiwan users as well as foreign OEMs.
The list price for Compaq's iPAQ Pocket PC, a high-end model, is
NT$15,000 in Taiwan, but many manufacturers target on low-end
models with limited features and a lower price. There are those
in Taiwan that believe it should the other way around - high end
first. That is, the manufacturers should concentrate on quality
products because of the personal computer market is saturated and
that technologies such as Internet Appliances (IA), mobile phones
and specially the PDA are getting public attention and have high
demand. For example, it is expected that five million units of
Compaq's iPAQ PC PDA are needed to meet the global market needs.
The initial Compaq's iPAQ order was only one million units. Now
there is a severe shortage of this PDA in the market. High Tech
Computer, Compaq's OEM partner based in Taiwan is increasing
their production from 100,000 units per month in 4Q, 2000, to
300,000 units per month starting in early 2001. High Tech will
have a new factory ready in June to ramp up production to ease
Compaq's iPAQ demand.
Wave Issue 0109 2/15/01 Article 3-03