Vendors of MP4 players in the Taiwan market, seeing the white-box handsets equipped with mobile TV functionality in the China market, plan to introduce white-box DVB-T (digital video broadcasting-terrestrial)-enabled handsets produced in China for sale in Taiwan in the fourth quarter of 2008, according to these vendors.
White-box handsets equipped with CMMB (China Mobile Multimedia Broadcasting, one of China's self-developed mobile TV standards) functionality have been selling well in the China market since July 2008 and this has brought a negative impact on sales of MP4 players with screens of 3- to 4.3-inches in China, the sources indicated. This is mainly because CMMB handsets are equipped with mobile TV and retail for less than 1,000 yuan (US$146) compared with prices of 700-1000 yuan charged for an MP4 player, the sources pointed out.
Vendors of MP4 players in Taiwan hope to replicate such marketing success in Taiwan by importing China-produced white-box handsets equipped with mobile TV functionality based on the DVB-T standard, the sources indicated. Such DVB-T handsets will sell at NT$8,000-10,000 (US$252-315), a price much less expensive than existing DVB-T handset models that sell in Taiwan for NT$12,000-13,000, the sources pointed out. Many makers of white-box DVB-T handsets in China adopt DVB-T chipsets supplied by Taiwan-based IC designer MediaTek, the sources noted.
However, retail players in the Taiwan handset channel hold a skeptical opinion that China-made white-box handsets can succeed in the market, as the general impression is one of relatively poor quality. They added that marketing MP4 players is different from selling handsets.
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