Commentary: Taiwan handset vendors, ODMs advised to optimize rising supply chain in China
日期：2014-04-04 阅读:1024次
Daniel Shen, Taipei; Steve Shen, DIGITIMES [Wednesday 2 April 2014]
Taiwan-based handset vendors and ODMs are advised to optimize the advantages of the handset supply chain in China to sharpen their competiveness and to avoid of being marginalized in the global handset market.
About 3-5 years ago, China-based Huawei and ZTE were still struggling to survive in fierce competition with white-box handset makers, Coolpad was switching from Windows Mobile to Android, and Lenovo had yet to step into the handset business, while Xiaomi Technology was not yet established.
Today, Lenovo, Huawei, ZTE, Coolpad and Xiaomi account for roughly 20% of the global smartphone shipments, with the first four vendors being included in the world's top-10 smartphone vendors list.
The fast expanding smartphone market in China, the aggressive pricing strategies adopted by China-based vendors, and the rise of the local handset supply chain combined have catalyzed the explosive growth enjoyed by China's handset players.
HTC, which had been a model for China-based handset makers to follow, now is losing out to those rivals in China. HTC is now imitating its rivals, is launching mid-range smartphone models with high hardware specifications and promoting sales through Internet - the same strategies played by Xiaomi and other China vendors.
HTC's recently released HTC Desire 816 in China is being tagged as the model having the highest price/performance ratio ever launched by the Taiwan-based smartphone vendor.
The HTC Desire 816 comes with a 5.5-inch 720p display, a Qualcomm 400 CPU and a 13-megapixel with BoomSound speakers, Blinkfeed home page and Zoe dynamic shooting, priced at CNY1,899 (US$306).
Also relying on an online marketing strategy adopted Xiaomi, HTC also snapped up pre-sale orders for 1.2 million units of the Desire 816 through online booking in 10 days - an important step for HTC to stage a comeback in China's smartphone market.
Asustek Computer has also set up an e-commerce company, the Asus Digital International (ADI), in cooperation with online shopping operator Uitox, aiming to promote its smartphone sales in Taiwan and China also via Internet.
China-based handset design houses and ODMs have managed to tide over a number of difficulties triggered by the ever-changing market conditions, including rapid upgrades of hardware specifications, fierce price competition, constantly improving yield rates and inventory control.
In addition to upgrading the mainstream smartphone specifications from 3.5-inch displays, single-core CPUs and 2-megapixel cameras to the current 5-inch displays, quad-core CPUs and 13-megapixel cameras, China-based handset design houses and ODMs have been able to continue rolling out models with high price/performance ratios with shortened time-to-market schemes.
China-based handset ODM, the Wingtech Group, has managed to win orders from Xiaomi, HTC, Samsung Electronics, Sony Mobile Communications and other domestic players including Huawei, TCL and Haier.
Optimizing its plastic/meal hybrid (PMH) technology, BYD Electronic has landed metal handset case orders as well as whole-set ODM handset orders from some major players, including Nokia, HTC and Samsung.
HTC, in addition to tying up with Wingtech, has also teamed up with China-based Longcheer Holdings to develop entry-level and mid-range smartphones.
Acer has been cooperating with SIM Technology also for production of entry-level and mid-range models, while Asustek is likely to outsource its smartphone production to Shanghai Huaqin Telecom Technology.
Taiwan-based handset ODMs including Foxconn/FIH Mobile, Compal Communications and Arima Communications, which have been confident in their R&D and in-house technology capabilities, will have to make adjustments in terms of component integration, multi-design small-volume production and shortened time-to-market, in the face of the rise of the supply chain in China