Taiwan smartphone, TV shipments jump in 2014

Taiwan's manufacturers saw shipments of handsets and LCD TVs both jump last year, according to reports by industry monitoring website Digitimes Research on Monday.

Taiwanese suppliers shipped 85.15 million handsets in 2014, up 39 percent year on year, and 36.14 million LCD TVs, compared with 34.13 million in 2013.

For the fourth quarter alone, mobile phone shipments by Taiwan-based ODMs and brand vendors reached 25.56 million units, up 15 percent from the previous quarter and over 50 percent from a year earlier, according to Digitimes Research.

LCD TV shipments by Taiwanese producers have exceeded 10 million units since the first quarter of 2012 to reach 10.86 million units in the fourth quarter of 2014, up 19.4 percent from the third quarter and 14.2 percent year on year.

TV's sized 50-inches and above made up a larger portion of the shipments during the fourth quarter, while 32-inch TVs accounted for less than 20 percent.

Looking to the first quarter of 2015, Digitimes forecast that LCD TV shipments will drop about 20 percent on a quarterly basis but still grow 11 percent year on year.