Following a final decision to set up a handset joint venture (JV) in India, Cal-Comp Electronics, recently laid down plans in which the company will switch from being a pure OEM maker, to become an ODM-based business, according to Hung-Sheng Pan, Vice president of Cal-Comp's telecoms business.

Unlike other handset makers, Cal-Comp will not target first-tier handset vendors. Instead, the company is planning to build relationships with telecoms service providers directly.

Apart from the India market, the US will become the next market for Cal-Comp with shipments to the region expected to kick off by the end of 2007.

Cal-Comp may ship 18-20 million handsets in 2007, said sources. The OEM proportion of its handset shipments has reduced to less than 20% while ODM orders have become the major business model.

Cal-Comp currently has CDMA and GSM product lines, and the company will begin developing EDGE products soon. CDMA will remain its focus in 2007 while GSM shipments will grow rapidly in 2008, said Pang, adding that the company will focus on feature phones, instead of smartphones since the market for smartphones has not yet matured.