Taiwanese makers to benefit from China Unicom's move to procure Apple's iPhones
With China Unicom Ltd. planning to buy five million units of iPhone from Apple Inc., Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd., the major contract supplier of the products, and a number of Taiwanese suppliers of handset parts and components are very likely to benefit from the plan in the future, according to industry sources.
These Taiwanese suppliers include Foxconn Technology Co., Ltd. (handset casings), Cheng Uei Precision Industry Co., Ltd. (connectors), Unimicron Technology Corp. (PCBs), Catcher Technology Co. (handset casings), Largan Precision Co. (camera lens), and TXC Corp. (frequency controls), among others.
Sales of iPhone, including its 3G edition, have exceeded 20 million units worldwide since its debut two years ago. The product is now sold to 80-strong different countries of the world as one of Apple's hottest-sellers.
China Unicom, one of big three telecom companies in China, is reportedly to spend RMB10 billion (US$1.46 billion at US$1: NT$6.83) to procure five million units of iPhone 3G for sale in the local market, and plans to become Apple's exclusive distributor of the product in mainland China. Accordingly, the firm will start selling the product at a low contract price in October as part of its efforts to promote 3G communications in the country.
Huge consumer demand in China is expected to further boost sales of iPhone. So far, over one million units of iPhone clones have been sold in the market, indicating potential popularity of the product with local consumers. At present, the U.S. is the largest market for iPhone, which absorbed 49% of the total global supply in the second quarter of this year, according to IDC (International Data Corp.)
