EST wins big-ticket OEM orders from international brands for MP3 players, PMPs

Taipei, Jan.17, 2005 (CENS)--Taiwan-based Eastern Asia Technology Ltd. (EST), a leading contract maker of MP3 players and portable media players (PMPs), has recently won big-ticket orders from several international brands such as Philips, Nike, RCA, Commodore etc.

EST chairman Liu Cheng-lin said that his company expects to ship over one million MP3 players and PMPs in 2005, making it one of the world's top-three suppliers of such products.

Industry sources said that MP3 players and PMPs, hot consumer electronic products with 3C (computer, communication, and consumer electronics) functions, are expected to enjoy high sales growth in the next few years, especially after the cell-phone and digital-camera markets become matured. Many local companies debuted their MP3 players and PMPs at the just-ended Consumer Electronics (CE) Show, including Tatung, BenQ, EST etc.

According to Liu, EST finalized an order for 60,000 LCD TVs from a big U.S. retail chain at the CE Show, with an additional order for 40,000 units to follow soon. Liu added that EST is ready to produce plasma display panel (PDP) TVs this year, at an annual capacity of 10,000 units.

Liu pointed out that the global demand for PMPs is expected tore reach one million units in 2005 from about 400,000 units in 2004, and the volume would grow to two million units in 2006 and eight million units in 2007.

EST is expected to ship over 200,000 PMPs this year, including about 100,000 for RCA. Including those supplied to its major customer Philips, EST is expected to ship over 700,000 higher-end MP3 players to new customers such as Nike etc.

One of EST's 63-inch PDP TV models won the innovation design and engineering award at the CE Show in 2005. In the past five years, Liu claimed, EST-designed products won 11 innovation awards at the big event.