Sony Mobile has stepped up its relationship with some of the biggest Taiwanese ODMs out there for future handsets according to a DigiTimes report. The report suggests that three ODMs in particular (Arima, Compal and Foxconn) have each received orders for one smartphone model that is due to ship during Q4 2012 into Q1 2013.
The report goes on to say that each ODM is expected to ship 3 to 6 million smartphones to Sony Mobile. Overall, Sony Mobile is expecting to ship around 40 million handsets in 2013 with approximately 25-30% of these fulfilled by ODMs.
It is unclear whether each ODM will be producing the same mobile handset or various models. The 40 million handset figure must be for calendar 2013 as at the last results in May, Sony confirmed that it expected Sony Mobile to ship 33 million Xperia smartphones in the year to March 2013.
In case you are wondering, ODM stands for Original Design Manufacturer. These are companies that will design and build a product as per another company’s specifications. This is unlike an OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) such as Asus, Acer, and Lenovo etc who design and build products to their own specifications.
