BenQ To Take On Apple iPhone

David Richards - Monday, 5 February 2007

BenQ is Not For Sale at any price. Howeverthey do have an arsenal of new products to launch including a tough new competitor to the iPhone.



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BenQ is not for sale according to the Companies CEO K.Y. Lee. Facing year end losses of nearly a Billion Australian dollars the company believes that they have enough in reserves to fend off any hostile takeover. They also claim to have several new breakthrough products that will allow them to claw back revenues among them are an iPhone competitor and new 1080p LCD TV's.

The Company also claims that Acer are not a contender to buy the BenQ brand as reported on SmartHouse News earlier this week despite "Wishful thinking" on the part of some Acer executives.

According to BenQ regional Vice President Phil Newton BenQ is set to launch several new products and could well be one of the first LCD TV manufacturer to deliver a new generation of 120Hz LCD TV's. He also claims that they have an iPhone killer that will compete head on with Apple.

Said Newton "I have spoken to KY Lee and BenQ is not for sale at any time or to anyone. What we are doing is re focusing the Company on a host of new products including a new touchphone mobile phone. we are well aware of the rumours and claims that Acer want the BenQ name. This is not on and is wishful thinking on the part of some Acer executives"

"I anticipate that BenQ could well reach a billion Australian in losses however the Company is very stable and will grow over the next year by delivering a host of innovative new products. We have new phones, TV's and projectors" he said.

He added" "Apple are not the only ones to have been working on touchscreen technology in phones. BenQ has it's own patents and has been working on this technology for a while. We will be launching our new touchscreen phone soon. We are also set to launch a stunning range of 1080p LCD TV's with duel tuners and built in PVR's


BenQ's losses for the fourth quarter of 2006 could be higher than expected due to the appropriation of US$61.5 million) for two-year after-sale services committed to handsets sold by BenQ Mobile, according to Eric Yu, senior vice president for finance at BenQ.

Currently rumours are circulating that BenQ is close to being sold

While BenQ has not yet made public its financial reports for the fourth quarter 2006, analysts at Taiwan securities houses have estimated that the company may book a non-operating loss of between US$182 and US$243 million.

With a higher-than-expected amount of non-operating losses, BenQ will continue operating in the red after taxes in the fourth quarter, after posting a net loss of NT$19.72 billion in the first three quarters of 2006, the analysts indicated.

For all of 2006, BenQ's net losses could top as much as US$800 million the analysts added.

In related news, BenQ has officially separated its corporate structure into three business groups – the integrated manufacturing services business group (IMS), the digital media business group (DMG) and the mobile communication business group (MCG), with the IMS group likely to be spun off to form a subsidiary, Yu said.

The IMS may bring in other strategic partners in the second half of 2007 at the earliest, according to BenQ chairman, KY Lee.

Meanwhile, BenQ plans to launch 14 new handsets in 2007, with 3G models to account for 40% of the planned new handsets, sources at BenQ have revealed.