Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), the nation’s biggest telecom services provider, yesterday gave a push to the Android platform by unveiling its first own-brand Android-based smartphone, the CHT8000, and said that Android phones should account for 40 percent of its total smartphone sales next year.
Total sales of Android-based smartphones should hit 120,000 units next year, with half of them carrying the CHT brand name, assistant manager Chen Chang-rong (陳長榮) told a product launch.
JUMPING IN
CHT8000 is the company’s first own-brand foray into the growing Google Inc operating platform. It is set to launch up to three more own-brand Android phones next year.
Sales of smartphones with other operating platforms, such as Microsoft Corp’s Windows Mobile and Apple Inc’s iPhones, should hit 180,000 next year, Chen said.
The CHT8000 is priced at NT$13,990 without contract and will be available starting in the middle of next month.
Local electronics makers have made an aggressive push to develop Android models, betting that the operating system will gain momentum as more consumers buy smartphones.
IDC figures indicate that global smartphone shipments grew 4.2 percent to 43.3 million in the third quarter from a year earlier.
POPULARITY CONTEST
HTC Corp (宏達電), the leading maker of smartphones running on both Windows Mobile and Android, said on Nov. 9 that more companies introducing Android models on the market would help boost the platform’s popularity.
The company strives to strengthen the HTC brand and increase consumer awareness of the Android platform, it said.
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