The country would also ship a similar amount of the devices over the first three months of 2008, which would be more than 150 percent up on the same period this year, the Market Intelligence Centre said in a forecast.

"This growth is being driven by several factors, one being the introduction of several new mass-produced models by High Tech Computer Corporation," the centre said in a report, referring to the island's leading smart phone maker.

"Another factor is the rise in procurements by North American and European operators to satisfy traditional peak season demand in the fourth quarter," it said.

It added that new Palm and HP models had also been outsourced to Taiwanese manufacturers.

Taiwan shipped 4.9 million smart handheld devices in the third quarter of 2007, up 83.5 percent year-on-year, the centre said.

Shipment value over the period broke the one-billion-US-dollar mark for the first time to 1.46 billion dollars, it added.

"Major growth momentum for the Taiwanese smart handheld device industry in the third quarter came from increased contract production of the Apple iPhone," it said.

There was still significant room for shipment growth as the iPhone has yet to be released in Asia, the consultancy said.

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