Times have been tough for the global smartphone market and the tablet market, which has been reflected on all markets, Taiwan included. Today we learn that the Taiwanese mobile phone brands have registered third quarter shipment drops by 35%, which includes the likes of HTC and ASUS.
They’ve all decreased by 35%, reaching 12.36 million units shipped. HTC, ASUS and Acer have performed lower than expected, which means their local partners and international ones have also been hurt. Firms like Compal, Foxconn, Arima, Wistron and others also posted lower results, but some of them saved themselves through partnerships with LG, BlackBerry and Sony.
ASUS has just begun selling the ZenFone 3, while HTC is now moving the Google Pixel models, so these aren’t felt in the stats just yet. ASUS did report a pretty OK Q3, with net profits of $187.75 million, up 45% from the previous 3 months and 42% from last year. Sales of ASUS branded products were up 14% sequentially but 3% from the year before. Operating margin was 4% and increased 14% from the previous quarter.
Tablet sales remain flat, while mobile devices are expected to grow by up to 20% next quarter.
