High Tech Computer Corp (HTC, 宏達電), the world's biggest maker of cellphones based on the Microsoft Windows operating system, yesterday said it will start supplying phones to NTT DoCoMo Inc later this month, breaking into the Japanese market.
The announcement came after the two companies signed an agreement in January. HTC president Peter Chou (周永明) said on June 14 in London that the company was expecting to ship the phones within the next few weeks.
DoCoMo, Japan's top mobile operator, is HTC's first Japanese customer. The Taiwanese handset manufacturer has a strong foothold in Europe, where it supplies phones to Vodafone Group, Deutsche Telekom AG's T-Mobile and Orange SA.
"As DoCoMo plans to begin selling HTC's phone, code-named hTc Z, in late July, HTC will be able to tap into Japan's market," the company said in a statement yesterday.
DoCoMo, which has more than 500 million subscribers, plans to sell the phone to its corporate users, according to the statement.
The DoCoMo deal is expected to increase HTC's revenues by 7 percent this year, said Lu Chia-lin (呂家霖), who tracks the handset industry for Yuanta Core Pacific Securities (元大京華證券).
HTC's sales during the first six months of this year jumped 74 percent to NT$50 billion from NT$28.8 billion a year ago.
HTC shares fell 3.38 percent to NT$885 on the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday, compared to a 0.08 percent drop in the TAIEX.
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