High Tech Computer Corp (HTC, 宏達電), the world's biggest maker of mobile phones running Microsoft Corp's Windows Mobile system, yesterday said it would start supplying third-generation (3G) phones to Vodafone KK by the end of the year, marking a further step in its expansion into the Japanese market.
HTC tapped into the Japanese market earlier this year when it began to supply 3G handsets to Japan's top mobile carrier NTT DoCoMo Ltd, after success in Europe and in the US. DoCoMo, Japan's largest wireless carrier, has been selling HTC handsets since July.
In a statement filed with the Taiwan Stock Exchange, HTC said it had inked a deal with Softbank Corp's Vodafone to jointly develop and sell 3G personal-digital-assistant phones in Japan.
Shares of HTC closed up 1.31 percent at NT$853 on the Taiwan Stock Exchange. Shares were also propped up by news that the company will be supplying smartphones to US telecommunications company Cingular.
In another statement filed yesterday, the company confirmed that it had debuted what it claims is the world's thinnest smartphone, the Cingular 3125, at the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association conference in the US on Wednesday.
The Cingular 3125 is the first clamshell smartphone running Windows Mobile 5.0 to hit the US market to date, it said.
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