Top Taiwanese handset makers enjoy better sales than expected in November
Both Compal Communication Inc. and Arima Communication Corp., currently Taiwan's top two mobile-phone makers, saw their sales for November rise at a faster pace than expected.
Compal had revenue of NT$2.57 billion (US$80 million at US$1:NT$32) in November alone, surging 21% from a month earlier and hitting the year's high. Arima raked in NT$1.15
billion (US$36 million) in November, a gain of 7.3% from a month earlier with a shipment of 1.03 million mobile phones.
Throughout the first 11 months of 2009, Compal had total revenue of NT$22.6 billion (US$709 million), down 34.8% from a year earlier in spite of the hefty revenue gain in November.
Although some institutional investors estimated the company to raise its revenue for the fourth quarter by 30% to NT$7.7 billion (US$240 million) sequentially, some think the projection is a hard challenge as the firm will have to rake in at least NT$3 billion (US$93 million) in December to achieve the goal. However, retailers, they said, are usually lukewarm in ordering handsets in December.
Arima's November revenue result beat market expectations, which originally projected the company's peak month for 2009 to fall on October. However, its consolidated revenue for October was only NT$1.07 billion (US$33 million) and shipments in the meantime were below one million handsets.
