TAPEI, Taiwan—BenQ Corp. announced it will spend an additional $400 million on its handset business BenQ Mobile—which ranks just below the world’s top five handset vendors—while spinning off other non-mobile businesses to strengthen the handset brand. The electronics firm has been making LCD monitors for Dell Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co. and televisions for Sanyo Electric Co. Ltd.
The company’s forward-looking strategies were packaged along with its poor financial results for the second quarter. BenQ posted its third straight quarterly loss and forecast flat sales and shipments in the third quarter, now half over. BenQ posted a net loss of $76.5 million for the second quarter, versus a net profit of $14.6 million in the year-ago quarter. In the second quarter BenQ’s handset division shipped 7.3 million units, according to Strategy Analytics. BenQ derives half its annual revenue from BenQ Mobile.
BenQ also set back the date it expects BenQ Mobile to return to profitability, from this year to mid-2007.
BenQ Mobile has been marketing high-tier mobile phones in its home market of Taiwan, as well as in China, Thailand, Germany, Spain and Russia. Meanwhile, the world’s top five handset manufacturers have increased their aggregate market share from 81 percent in the first quarter to 83 percent in the second quarter, squeezing the remaining share available to second-tier vendors such as BenQ Mobile.
BenQ Mobile also announced the release of another handset model in its AL26 line designed to attract young, female consumers. On the heels of a model with a Hello Kitty imprint, BenQ announced today the launch of an AL26 with a prominent butterfly motif. It is not yet clear where these phones will launch or at what price point.
