HTC Corp (宏達電), which made the world’s first handset running the Android system supported by Google Inc, expects shipments of its second Android phone — HTC Magic — to hit 1 million units in the next month or two, a company executive said yesterday.
Although the global recession is taking a toll on sales of mobile phones and other electronics, HTC chief executive officer Peter Chou (周永明) said “the sales of HTC Magic look good.”
Shipments of HTC Magic may reach 1 million units “within one or two months,” Chou said.
That would be three or four months after the Android-powered mobile phones first went on sale in Europe, along with telecom operator Vodafone’s services.
“The progress is better than most analysts’ expectations as some thought it would take at least five months for HTC to sell 1 million HTC Magic phones,” said Lu Chia-lin (呂家霖), an analyst with Macquarie Research.
Giving a brief outlook about the company’s business in the second half of the year, Chou said sales in the US would be strong as it has formed stronger partnerships in the US.
Lu expects HTC revenues to grow 15 percent next quarter, from NT$39 billion (US$1.2 billion) estimated for the second quarter, as the smartphone maker has won new orders from US customers, including the US’ biggest telecom operator, AT&T Inc, as well as Sprint and T-Mobile USA Inc.
Starting next month, HTC is expected to supply a new Android-based phone to T-Mobile, which introduced its first Android mobile phone, G1, made by HTC, last year.
T-Mobile is set to give details of a new Android-based phone on June 24, Bloomberg news wire reported yesterday.
HTC and Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) launched the HTC Magic in Taiwan yesterday, making Chunghwa Telecom the first local phone company to sell Android phones.
HTC Magic will be available on Monday for a price ranging from free to NT$9,300 per unit when bundled with Chunghwa Telecom’s services with fees ranging from NT$649 to NT$2,549 per month.
Separately, Chunghwa Telecom said it planned to purchase 2 million mobile phones this year for new subscribers, or for existing customers to replace old phones, down nearly 10 percent from an original estimate of 2.2 million units.
HTC shares rose 0.36 percent to NT$416.5 yesterday, outperforming the benchmark TAIEX, which lost 0.83 percent.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last