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Daniel Shen, Taipei; Steve Shen, DIGITIMES [Friday 12 June 2009]
Some Taiwan-based smartphone makers are planning to focus more on the development of high-end multimedia handsets, instead of concentrating on Windows Mobile- or Android-based smartphones, according to market sources within Taiwan's handset industry.
The overall production costs, including royalty payments and resources, for smartphones are over three- to four-times higher than those for high-end multimedia handsets, but the market for smartphones is much smaller, the sources indicated.
The production of high-end multimedia handset is also much easier as a multimedia model requires only 300-400 components compared to 1,000-1,200 needed for a smartphone, the sources added.
The increasing adoption of touch panels and touch user interfaces (touch UIs) in multimedia handsets has also minimized the difference between multimedia handsets and smartphones.
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