Xiaomi’s newly launched 5.7-inch flagship smartphone – Mi Note – seemed to help boost several Taiwanese contractors’ business.

On Jan. 15, Xiaomi unveiled the Mi Note flagship smartphone that features ultra-slim design, a more powerful processor, improved cameras and better display resolution.

Priced at US$412 for the Mi Note Pro and US$372 for the Mi Note in China, the former sports Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810 chipset, 4GB of RAM, and a quad HD display, while the latter is equipped with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 801, 3GB of RAM, and a full HD display. The Chinese smartphone maker also touted the fact that unlike the iPhone 6 variants, the rear camera sits flush with the phone’s body, and does not protrude like the American flagship.

“The newly debuted flagship model is evidence of Xiaomi’s strategy to expand its product portfolio in 2015,” said Jasmine Lu (呂智穎), a Taipei-based analyst with Morgan Stanley. “Competition is intensifying in China and overseas expansion will take time to bear fruit, but we believe Xiaomi can still outgrow peers via a broader mix.”

Lu, meanwhile, estimated that Xiaomi will begin its mass production of the Mi Note sometime in February or March, with shipments forecast to total eight million to 10 million units during the whole product cycle.

Xiaomi sold a total of 61.12 million units of smartphones in 2014.

The analyst said that FIH Mobile (HKG: 2038), a unit for Taiwanese contract electronics maker Foxconn Technology Group (TPE: 2354) and one of Xiaomi’s suppliers, will benefit from a higher average selling price for casings and will gain about 50% of the assembly orders.

“This means that Xiaomi is expected to contribute around 13% of FIH’s total revenue in 2015 and more than 45% of its gross profits this year,” she said.

Lu also named FIH and Hong Kong-listed AAC Technologies Holdings Inc (HKG: 2018), the main sources of Xiaomi’s acoustic and RF solutions, as the top two picks in Xiaomi’s supply chain and maintained an “overweight” rating on both stocks.

One of the Mi Note’s highlights is its 13-megapixel rear camera equipped with Sony’s IMX214 sensor. The Note’s camera selection represents a potential boon to a lot of Taiwanese suppliers, including Sunnic Technology and Merchandise, a partnering distributor of Sony (TYO: 6758) parts and modules, camera lens maker Largan Precision (TPE: 3008), camera module makers Primax Electronics (TPE: 4915) and Lite-On Technology (TPE: 2301), and electronic manufacturing service provider Inventec (TPE: 2356).

Display panel suppliers Wintek (TPE: 2384) and TPK (TPE: 3673), however, will not be included in the list of Taiwanese companies set to benefit from Xiaomi’s phablet sales although these two screen and touch panel manufacturers have been Xiaomi’s partners since 2013, now that Xiaomi decided to commission Japanese competitors Japan Display (TYO: 6740) and Sharp (TYO: 6753) for the job.

In order to achieve the Mi Note’s 7-mm thickness, which is 0.1-mm thinner than the iPhone 6 Plus, Xiaomi had adopted the in-cell touch display technology made by the Japan Display and Sharp, over TPK’s touch-on-lens and Wintek’s on-glass-solution.

Xiaomi observed a sales drop during the fourth quarter last year. The sales drop was related to its then-supplier Wintek’s being beleaguered by ailing financial condition and is in the midst of a restructuring process. The Taiwan-based touch panel maker supplied touch panels for both Apple and Xiaomi. In an attempt to vie more orders, Wintek invested large sums of funds to increase its production yield. Much of the funds were used to build new facilities in Dongguan, China, and Vietnam. The much lower-than-expected demand for touch panels, combines with competition from Chinese rivals, however, caused Wintek great losses on assets. Wintek filed a petition to the court last October for seeking business restructuring.

The announcement surprised many of its clients, including Xiaomi, which was also forced to find a new touch panel supplier. With a new supplier, it also took more time for quality control and to increase capacity, which also affected Xiaomi’s smartphone shipments for the fourth quarter last year.

Xiaomi’s smartphone sales took a plunge by four million units during the fourth quarter last year following Wintek’s restructuring announcement in October.

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Most smartphones will be cheaper than US$100 each by 2020: Gartner

Gartner (NYSE: IT) said on Dec. 11 that 78% of smartphones will cost no more than US$100 by 2020.

Gartner’s latest research and analysis said that by 2018, 78% of the world’s smartphones will be available in developing countries.

The research said that most of smartphone users in these developing countries are attracted to those smartphone models with basic functions, while the development of luxury or top-of-the-line smartphone models has reached to a bottleneck.

Gartner said that the average price of basic smartphones will be between US$25 and US$78 each by 2018. China’s brand names, meanwhile, will grow fast and occupy most of the global market.

EBay to lay off some 1,000 employees

The Wall Street Journal reported on Dec. 10 that eBay (NASDAQ: EBAY) may lay off some 1,000 employees sometime early next year.

The newspaper reported that approximately 3,000 eBay employees will be impacted by the shrinking plan, while the company is also planning to make PayPal an individual company. Wall Street Journal reported that most of those who will be laid off belong to eBay.com and StarHub.

EBay spokesman did not either confirm or deny the allegation as of press time.

CGN Power lights up Hong Kong bourse

CGN Power (HKG: 1816) shares leapt a fifth during the company’s Hong Kong debut, as investors bet that China’s attempts to cut its reliance on coal will benefit Chinese nuclear producers.

Despite of Japan’s nuclear disaster in 2011, the Chinese government continued the construction of its 28 nuclear power plants. Nomura analysts gave CGN stock a 12-month price target of HK$4.10 on Dec. 10, saying that its strong capacity growth, rising demand and government support should lift its performance.

Last month, the company stated that it wanted to double its number of plants within five years.

Wintek lays off 7,000 employees of its factory in China

Wintek (TPE: 2384), Taiwan’s touch screen maker, laid off more than 7,000 employees from its Dongguan factory on Dec. 10, as more than 200 Chinese suppliers spent the past week protesting unpaid debts of US$37.25 million as they claimed.

One of the suppliers said that Wintek had closed suddenly and that there was no way to contact the company, as all the Taiwanese mangers had run off.

Wintek reported a loss of US$320.5 million last year, and another US$100 million in the first six months of this year. The company was once a long-term supplier for Apple.

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