Taiwan's telecom operators, which sold over 1 million tablet computers in the first three quarters of 2012, (onda v811 dual core )said Friday that they expect significant growth in sales of tablets with smaller screens next year.The new 7-inch gadgets will be the main drivers of growth in Taiwan's tablet market following Friday's launch of Apple Inc.'s iPad Mini in the domestic market, said Cliff Lai, co-president of Taiwan Mobile Co.Similar devices sold by other vendors in the category will have to set their price tags at below NT$10,000 (US$344.30) if they want to compete with Apple's 7.9-inch iPad Mini, which is priced at NT$10,500, Lai said.Taiwan Mobile (onda v971 dual core 9.7 )sold 150,000 tablets this year and hopes to sell 200,000 in 2013, but Lai said it will be a difficult target to achieve.Benefiting from the iPad mini's launch, Far EasTone
Telecommunications Co. expects to sell 30,000 tablets per month next year, according to Far EasTone President Yvonne Li, which would be twice as many as the 180,000 tablets it is projected to sell in 2012.Chunghwa Telecom Co.,(freelander for sale ) Taiwan's biggest telecom carrier, also hopes to improve its sales of tablets next year, targeting sales of 200,000 units in 2013 from 100,000 units this year, said Lin Kuo-feng, president of Chunghwa Telecom's Mobile Business Group.Lin said he is optimistic about sales of tablets with screens smaller than 10 inches in size because he expects they will attract new consumer segments to the product.