Taiwan-based makers will ship 15.23 million handsets in total during the first quarter of 2013, increasing 4% on quarter but decreasing 3.4% on year, according to Digitimes Research's latest findings.

Of the shipments, 14.73 million units or 96.7% will be smartphones, rising by 8.8% on quarter and by 27.9% on year, while WCDMA, CDMA and GSM models will account for 68.5%, 27.3% and 4.2% respectively, Digitimes Research figures show.

Smartphone vendor HTC will ship eight million units in the first quarter, followed by Chi Mei Communication Systems' 2.5 million, Compal Communications' two million, Arima Communications' 1.8 million and Inventec Appliances' 500,000.