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MID Market Surge Keeps Taiwanese Contract Suppliers Humming
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| 13 July 2009 |
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Taiwan`s contract electronics manufacturers will become the major beneficiaries of the contracts for mobile Internet devices (MIDs) from world leading telecom service providers, according to Michael Chen, Director of Intel`s embedded sales group and ultra mobility group in Asia Pacific.
Chen said telecom service providers including Telecom Italia, France Telecom, Korea Telecom, and UQ Communications of Japan have begun releasing contract orders for the devices solely to Taiwan`s dedicated manufacturers including Compal Electronics Inc, Quanta Computer Inc, Inventec Corp, and Qisda Corp.
Market research organizations estimate global shipments of the devices to amount to 90 million systems in 2012.
Intel, Far EasTone Telecom Co Ltd, and BenQ Corp recently co-introduce an MID codenamed BenQ MID S6, which is said to be the world`s first of its kind to run on Windows XP OS. Service provider Far EasTone will sell the gadget at retail NT$1,890 accompanied with a preferential monthly rate of NT$775.
Far EasTone and BenQ are Intel`s another partners around MID in Taiwan after it entered into alliance with Chunghwa Telecom Co Ltd and Gigabyte Technology Co Ltd. Intel supplies Atom processor for the mobile Internet equipment.
Far EasTone plans to use MIDs to lure more subscribers to its mobile Internet connection service. The company projects to increase its mobile Internet subscribers to 240,000-250,000 by the end of this year from current 180,000.
Chen noted that telecom service providers have become the prime buyers of MIDs mostly because their revenues from voice-based services are growing lukewarm, prompting them to increase revenues from non-voice services like mobile Internet connection.
Intel is one of the world`s leading pacesetters for MIDs. It has made Europe its major market in the beginning of its MID project and entered into alliance with France Telecom and Telecom Italia. Taiwan`s electronics manufacturers have been contracted to supply them the devices.
Source: CENS |
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