In a surprising move, Ericsson has opened an office in Taiwan to specifically purchase new CPE products that support HSPA, LTE and IPTV in addition to current 2G and 3G-based devices.
The president of Ericsson Taiwan, Stefan Johansson, indicated that this venture was being driven by the anticipated global demand for connected devices--including handsets, notebooks, MIDs and gaming machines, that is expected to exceed 50 billion units by 2020. "LTE will also play a key role in mobile connectivity, with 20 networks expected to enter commercial service by the end of this year."
Local reports speculated that Ericsson would initially agree to take IP set-top boxes from Zyxel Communications and Wistron NeWeb, as well as CPE products using Ericsson's 3.5G modules from Wistron, Micro-Star International and Clevo.
Separately, Ericsson' CEO, Hans Vestberg, said that he wanted the company to grow its market share from the estimated 40 to 45 per cent of the global wireless market, but with a particular focus on services, wireless equipment and multimedia.
Being very new to the role of CEO, Vestberg has shown great reluctance in providing any firm predictions on how or when Ericsson might be more/less successful. Doing little to dispel this impression, Vestberg added: "For services, we're currently in double digits, but it's much more fragmented. We want to grow faster in the market... but it's too early to make any predictions and how the market will go."
For more on this story:
DigiTimes and Total Telecom
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