Taiwan's major GPS suppliers to strike gold in 2nd half of this year

location based services

Jul 05, 2007

With long European vacations creating a boom in selling global positioning system (GPS) devices, Taiwan's GPS industry is expected to post the third-highest sales growth in the second half of this year among other industries on the island,

according to Topology Research Institute (TRI).

Traditionally, suppliers of GPS devices generally embrace a sales boom in the second quarters, seeing sales and shipments peak starting July when European vacations begin. Such trend gives a boost to sales of Taiwanese makers in this segment, including Globalsat Technology Corporation, HOLUX Technology Inc. and RoyalTek Company Ltd.

Furthermore, the Taiwan-based MiTAC International Corporation, one of the world's leading brands of GPS devices, will most likely hold its No. 2 position in the second half of this year, and to challenge the largest, TomTom, next year, after acquiring an European brand, Navman, according to TRI.

In other words, with increasing orders from MiTAC and other large-sized international brands, such Taiwan-based contract makers of GPS devices as Invetec Appliance Corp. and Quanta Computer Inc. will benefit as well. Thus, the GPS industry on the island is expected to score the third-highest sales growth in the second half of this year, higher than 82.5% posted in the first half, and only trailing those of electric bicycle and LED industries.

Another Taiwan market survey institute, Market Intelligence Center (MIC), noted that global market demand for hand-held navigation devices (NDs), portable navigation devices (PNDs), GPS devices, and PDAs is estimated at 16 million units in 2007, for a growth of 10%, with over 50% supplied by Taiwan, and projected production value of Taiwan's overall PND industry to total US$950 million in the fourth quarter of this year.

In particular, MiTAC, who boasts dual brands Mio and Navman and competitive product line of hand-held NDs, is expected to effectively expand its share of the global market due to increasing shipments, and challenge the No. 1 position next year.

MiTAC is focusing its promotion on all kinds of GPS devices adopting touch panels, and projects its own brand to generate a gross profit rate of 30-40% this year, with annual shipment of 8 million units, including models under Navman and on ODM basis, according to institutional investors.

On another front, thanks to increasing shipment of its new products driving momentum in business operations and sales, HOLUX is expected to score sales revenue of nearly NT$100 million in June, up 30% from a month earlier.

After one year of reorganization, RoyalTek rallied back this year, and plans to launch new products in the third quarter. Leung C.C., chairman of the company said that RoyalTek has completed operation deployment in new markets and landed additional orders. He added that RoyalTek is very optimistic about growth potential of the market for GPS devices in the second half of this year, and is aggressive to vie for more orders in the market.

source & copyright: CENS