April 1, 2002

Most sectors of Taiwan's IT hardware, telecommunications and information appliance industries will recover from the downturn of 2001 and experience growth this year, according to an official analysis.

Top officials of the Market Intelligence Center (MIC), the market research division of the Institute for Information Industry (III) submitted optimistic outlooks about trends in the information industry at panel discussion held at the National Taiwan University last week.

The officials covered subjects of the sectors of desktop computers, notebook computers, servers, LCD monitors, CD writers and digital cameras within the hardware industry, wide are networks (WAN), local area networks (LAN) and mobile phones with in the communication industry, and a wide range of information appliances (IA) including smart phones, game consoles and thin clients.

According to the analysts, Taiwan's desktop and notebook computer markets will grow 5,1% and 12% respectively, due to an expected economic recovery and increasingly low prices for notebook computers.

The servers market is to grow 10.5% due to the rising popularity of e-commerce and the increasing use of the Internet by small and medium enterprises.

The market for LCD monitors, CD writers and digital camera will grow y 6.8%, 2.1% and 29% respectively. Cameras with resolutions of 2 Megapixels and more with enjoy specific popularity.

LAN and WAN was said to grow 13.3% and 187.1%. This latter high growth, which includes dial-up access, ADSL and cable modem uses, is a direct result of more high-speed Internet access services offered by fixed-line operators.

Mobile phone shipments this year should total around 5,7 million pieces, up from 4.86 million last year, as world-class mobile phone operators such as Nokia and Motorola will launch 3G handsets this year, and, moreover, there seems to be an renewed interest in people switching their present mobile phones to new ones.

The IA industry will also enjoy a boost this year, with expected production volumes of 208,000 game consoles, 145,000 PDAs and 12,000 units of thin clients.