Dec. 24, 2001

The Market Intelligence Center of the Taiwan government-backed Institute of Information Industry estimates Taiwan's production of information appliances will rise 38.8 % to the equivalent of US$ 12.58 million in production value and 36.5% in production volume this year.

The Taiwan think tank's study shows that the growth will mainly focus on thin clients, Net TVs and smart handheld devices. Other items of the Taiwan industry, MIC says, are expected to register a more than 40% recession in both value and volume.

The thin client, Net TV and smart handheld device sectors are estimated to surge 14.8%, 31.4% and 67.5% respectively in production volume, and by 6.1%, 25.5%, and 118.1% respectively in value terms.

MIC specialists attribute the particularly high growth of smart handheld devices to the joining of the higher-value personal digital assistants running Windows CE operating systems.

These market specialists point out that Taiwan's thin-client sector has built a solid foundation for development, but its estimated 14.8% growth is moderate compared with last year's impressive rate of 97.8%. They ascribe the slow growth to the sharp information-technology spending cuts by enterprises in the aftermath of the Sept .11 events.

Although Net TV accounts for over 60% for over 60% of Taiwan's total IA production value and it is forecast to have handsome growth this year, the sector is expected ti enjoy slow growth in the near term because of the low rate of second-time buys in North America, the world's largest market of these products.

The MIC points out that the global IA market began thriving last year, inspiring expectations for the development of related industries, even though they are small in both volume and value.