In view of the estimated global demand for 20 million digital photo frames in 2008, many makers in southern China have offered lower prices to compete with Taiwan-based makers for OEM orders, but their disadvantages in inferior quality and inability to secure supplies of small-sized TFT-LCD panels renders them unattractive to international brand vendors including Philips, Sony, Toshiba and ViewSonic, according to industry sources in Taiwan.

Most makers in southern China used to assemble digital music and/or DVD players and thereby are familiar with image processing and modulating technologies, the sources pointed out. As the technological barriers for stepping into making digital photo frames are not high, makers have quoted prices 5-8% lower than Taiwan-based makers to compete for OEM orders.

However, compared with leading Taiwan-based competitors such as Lead Data, Foxconn (Hon Hai Precision Industry) and Qisda, China-based makers are significantly less competitive in terms of quality, production capacity and ability to procure enough TFT-LCD panels (mainly 7- and 8.9-inch) partly due to competition from low-cost notebook PCs and handheld devices, the sources analyzed.

Consequently, it will be hard for China-based makers to land OEM orders from leading international vendors for the time being, the sources asserted, and so the makers are currently focusing on winning orders from second-tier and small vendors, white-box brands, as well as retail channels, the sources noted.

Currently, leading Taiwan-based makers each ship 200,000-300,000 digital photo frames a month while the average monthly shipment volume for China-based competitors is below 100,000 units, the sources indicated. Of the estimated global demand for 20 million digital photo frames in 2008, Taiwan-based makers may collectively account for as much as 90% of shipments with China-based makers making up the remaining 10%, the sources forecast.