Asia Optical saw its gross margin increase to 10% and net loss shrink to NT$19.85 million (US$684,000) in the third quarter due to increasing shipments of optical devices used in smartphones to clients in the US, according to industry sources.

Asia Optical's continued net losses were mainly because of decreased shipments and prices of digital cameras, the sources indicated. Despite obtaining orders from new client Olympus, Asia Optical is expected to fail to meet its 2011 target shipments of digital cameras because shipments to Eastman Kodak will be far short of original order volumes, the sources pointed out. AOF Imaging Technology, Asia Optical's subsidiary, has not yet reached an economic production scale, the sources noted.

However, Asia Optical is optimistic about growth in shipments of optical devices used in smartphones and has been expanding production capacity, the sources indicated.

Source:digitimes