High Tech Computer jumps on handset news

Shares of High Tech Computer Corp (HTC, 宏達電) jumped by near the 7-percent daily limit yesterday after the world's biggest maker of handsets running Microsoft Corp's system said it would sell an advanced version of its highly hyped "HTC Touch" later this year in Europe.

The code-named HTC Touch phone is widely seen as a competitor to Apple Inc's iPhone as both the companies promoted their phones with the key feature -- the touch screen -- which allows users to browse Web pages, documents, messages and the contact list, replacing a traditional keypad.

The stock price of HTC rose NT$34, or 6.87 percent, to NT$529 yesterday, outperforming the benchmark TAIEX's 1.42 percent gain.

"The company will start selling the product to major European telecom operators in the fourth quarter," HTC said in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday.

The Taoyuan-based company said on Monday that it planned to sell the second-generation of HTC Touch family, or HTC Touch Dual, later this month in Europe for Orange, which plans to launch the model in the UK, France, Romania, Poland and Switzerland.

The new model of the Touch series is a more powerful phone enabling high-speed connectivity at 3G, or 3.5G for wireless connectivity and data transmission, compared to Edge technology, at 2.5G, adopted for the HTC Touch launched this summer.

The nation's biggest phone company Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) yesterday said it plans to buy an additional 30,000 HTC smartphones this quarter, said Chen Chang-rong (陳長榮), who is in charge of the company's handset purchases by phone.

Chunghwa Telecom bought 10,000 HTC phones along with an unspecified volume of HTC Touch, Chen said.

Chunghwa Telecom has said HTC phones have helped boost the average revenue per user (ARPU). The ARPU from HTC phone users was NT$1,520, 46 percent higher than the average NT$1,041 from its 3G subscribers.

Chunghwa Telecom has a total of 8.5 million mobile users, making up a 36.3 percent share of the local mobile market. It has 1.65 million 3G subscribers.