Taiwan wins Apple iWatch orders

Two leading Taiwanese electronics firms that assemble products for Apple have received orders to make the highly anticipated "iWatch", an analyst and reports said Wednesday. "Apple is likely to introduce 'iWatch' in 2014. From our channel checks, Inventec is the major assembly source for 'iWatch', with about 60 percent of order allocation," said CIMB Securities analyst Wanli Wang in a report. CIMB projects 63.4 million units of "iWatch" shipments in the year after its launch with an average price of around $199, while the "iWatch" project is estimated to contribute 19 percent of Inventec's earnings in 2014, Wang said. Taiwan's Apple Daily newspaper said Quanta Computer was splitting the "iWatch" orders with Inventec by taking 40 percent of order allocation, citing unnamed sources. Inventec and Quanta both declined to comment. Wearable computing devices such as Google's Glass eyewear are widely seen as the next frontier in consumer electronics, following the huge popularity of smartphones. Competition in the "smartwatch" market is heating up, with Google, Microsoft and Samsung Electronics racing to develop their own watch-type computing devices. California-based Apple last month filed a trademark application for an "iWatch" in Japan. Apple chief Tim Cook earlier this year forecast that there will be "tons of companies playing" in the wearable computing sector.