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 Technology Stocks : Deswell Industries (DSWL)

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To: Terrapin who wrote (1382)3/28/2000 12:05:00 PM
From: tero kuittinenRead Replies (2) of 1418
 

Well - there are two Finnish companies embarked on aggressive international expansion; Eimo and Perlos. But I think they are currently concentrating on European markets; Hungary is a hotspot of mobile manufacturing, thanks to Nokia's production facilities there. Contractors are building their own plants there as well.

I don't think there's anything that sets GSM apart from standards like CDMA, TDMA and PDC in this industry from the manufacturing POV; though right now mobile internet phones are often initially launched in GSM markets. Nokia's 7110 with the Navi-Roller feature was launched in January and should sell 10 million units in the GSM format this year. I think that AT&T is launching the TDMA version this spring, but I doubt that the shipments will be more than maybe 20-30% of the GSM sales.

Many value-added mobile handsets (like Ericsson's T28 and Motorola's V-series) are launched first in GSM markets in Asia and Europe. The North American digital versions follow 6-18 months later. So in many cases, the contracts for manufacturing these models are placed for the first-wave GSM models.

Since Motorola, Nokia and Ericsson seem to launch the CDMA, TDMA and GSM-1900 models in USA after that time lag, Nordic molding experts seem to think they have a R&D edge. Eimo and Perlos started specializing in exchangeable covers back when 5110 was launched in Europe in the spring of 1998 - they're now doing covers for the 8210, which is the first 3 ounce model featuring custom covers.

Again, the 8200 series is not shipping in North America, though it's a big hit in Asia. So I think that having either European or Asian base is very important for companies competing in this space. China would seem to be a very good choice - they're exporting mobile phones to other Asian countries from there, and the domestic GSM subscriber base should top 40 million this summer.

Tero











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