Taiwanese Makers Eye India's Booming Mobile Device Market

Taipei, Aug. 6, 2010 (CENS)--To tap the booming mobile device market in India, which is generally deemed as the next highest-potential cellphone market trailing China, many Taiwanese makers are actively developing products for the emerging market.

According to a recent forecast made by Gartner Inc., ?mobile device sales in India are estimated at 138.6 million units in 2010, an increase of 18.5% over 2009 sales of 117 million units. The mobile handset market is expected to show steady growth through 2014 when end user sales surpass 206 million units, the leading information technology (IT) research firm said.

Both Taiwan's MediaTek Inc. (IC chip developer) and Arima Communications Inc. (handset contract assembler) have ventured into the Indian market through their major customer LG of South Korea. While Inventec Appliances Corp. (OKWAP), a handset maker, has also tied up with an Indian telecom company to vend its cellphones there.

High Tech Computer Corp. (HTC), the largest smartphone maker in Taiwan, launched its smartphone model in India this year and plans to tap the market with middle-to-high-end products. HTC has also cooperated with different telecom carriers in India.

Anshul Gupta, principal research analyst at Gartner, pointed out that price remains the main criterion governing purchase of any consumer electronic device in India. Carrier strategies, lower tariffs and/or third-generation (3G) data plans would continue to shape the mobile device market in India. Amid the low-price trend, many Chinese cellphone makers tap into the rising Indian market by using core chips supplied by Taiwan's Mediatek. Most of the low-price models also use Mediatek's chips. Inventec also developed several entry-level GSM, CDMA handset models for the Indian market.

Cellphone penetration in India stood at 45% in 2009, and the market is entering a second phase of growth, with replacement sales increasing from 45% in 2009 to 50% of total sales in 2010, Gartner said.