HTC Corp (宏達電), the world’s largest maker of smartphones using Microsoft Corp and Google Inc operating systems, declared yesterday that next year would be its “Asian Year” as the company is gearing up to boost its presence in the region.
“This year, our Asian sales will grow 200 percent [from last year,]” HTC chief executive officer Peter Chou (周永明) told its largest-ever product launch in Asia, to which regional media and telecoms partners were invited attend.
Chou said the Asian market has great growth potential, and Asian consumers are receptive toward its brand. The CEO brushed off the possibility that HTC may launch its own application store.
“There is not much value for us to launch an app store,” Chou said.
This is because the market would be too fragmented considering that HTC’s partners, such as Google Inc and Microsoft Corp, already have app stores in the market, he said.
On market speculation that HTC will launch an Android-based tablet PC in the first quarter, the CEO said “[the] tablet is a good device. It has a good positioning and a niche market.”
He refused to divulge information that refers to its future product pipeline.
HTC also unveiled the HTC Desire HD and HTC Desire Z, both running on Android. Both will be available in Asia next month, with sales of each of the models expected to hit 1 million by end of the year, Chou said.
Executives from HTC’s telecoms partners that attended the event included Taiwan’s three major telecoms operators, as well Maxis BHD from Malaysia, M1 Ltd in Singapore, Hong Kong CSL Ltd (香港移動通訊) and Vietnam Mobile Telecom Services Company (MobiFone).
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Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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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