HTC Corp (宏達電), the world’s No. 5 smartphone brand, is set to ride its solid shipment momentum into next year by unseating Research in Motion Ltd (RIM), the maker of the BlackBerry, to become the No. 4 brand, a market researcher said.
With shipments continuing to break records and a variety of models in the pipeline, HTC has a good chance of moving up a notch to the No. 4 spot next year, -according to a report released last week by the Market Intelligence Center (MIC) of the government-backed Institute for Information Industry (資策會).
Another driving force for HTC is that the Android operating system (OS) will see its market share expand to 40 percent next year, up 2 percentage points from this year, it said.
The iOS operating system, used exclusively by Apple Inc’s products, will see its share expand by 1 percentage point to 19 percent next year, according to MIC’s estimates.
The Windows Phone OS, from Microsoft Corp, will seize a 17 percent market share next year, thanks to Nokia Corp pledging full support to the OS after recently forming an alliance with Microsoft.
HTC will benefit from the dominance of Android and the rise of Windows Phone OS, because it is the world’s largest maker of smartphones running on both operating systems, the Taipei-based research arm said.
HTC’s revenue nearly doubled to a record NT$278.8 billion (US$9.7 billion) last year, from NT$144.5 billion in 2009. Net profit expanded 75 percent to NT$39.5 billion.
Smartphone shipments more than doubled to 24.6 million units from 11.7 million in 2009.
In the first quarter, HTC shipped 9.7 million smartphones — a figure that comes near to 40 percent of last year’s total shipments.
Analysts have projected that HTC’s shipments could set another record this year — at least 50 million.
Canada’s RIM last month reported profits of US$695 million on revenue of US$4.9 billion for its first fiscal quarter, versus US$934 million in profits a year ago. Revenue rose 16 percent from US$4.24 billion in the same period last year.
RIM shipped 13.2 million smartphones during the quarter, below the 13.5 million it gave during revised guidance at the end of April.
RIM, which is losing out to iPhones and Android-based smartphones, also said it would begin a “cost optimization program” that will include layoffs during the -second quarter.
Meanwhile, the MIC report forecast that the Taiwanese telecommunications industry — which includes sectors for feature phones, smartphones and related component manufacturing — will expand 30 percent year-on-year to NT$1.7 trillion in production output this year.
HTC shipments fueled the industry’s growth in the first half of the year, with next-generation iPhones expected to boost the industry in the second half.
Taiwanese makers supply components and assemble iPhones for Apple.
RUN IT BACK: A succesful first project working with hyperscalers to design chips encouraged MediaTek to start a second project, aiming to hit stride in 2028 MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the world’s biggest smartphone chip supplier, yesterday said it is engaging a second hyperscaler to help design artificial intelligence (AI) accelerators used in data centers following a similar project expected to generate revenue streams soon. The first AI accelerator project is to bring in US$1 billion revenue next year and several billion US dollars more in 2027, MediaTek chief executive officer Rick Tsai (蔡力行) told a virtual investor conference yesterday. The second AI accelerator project is expected to contribute to revenue beginning in 2028, Tsai said. MediaTek yesterday raised its revenue forecast for the global AI accelerator used
TEMPORARY TRUCE: China has made concessions to ease rare earth trade controls, among others, while Washington holds fire on a 100% tariff on all Chinese goods China is effectively suspending implementation of additional export controls on rare earth metals and terminating investigations targeting US companies in the semiconductor supply chain, the White House announced. The White House on Saturday issued a fact sheet outlining some details of the trade pact agreed to earlier in the week by US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) that aimed to ease tensions between the world’s two largest economies. Under the deal, China is to issue general licenses valid for exports of rare earths, gallium, germanium, antimony and graphite “for the benefit of US end users and their suppliers
Dutch chipmaker Nexperia BV’s China unit yesterday said that it had established sufficient inventories of finished goods and works-in-progress, and that its supply chain remained secure and stable after its parent halted wafer supplies. The Dutch company suspended supplies of wafers to its Chinese assembly plant a week ago, calling it “a direct consequence of the local management’s recent failure to comply with the agreed contractual payment terms,” Reuters reported on Friday last week. Its China unit called Nexperia’s suspension “unilateral” and “extremely irresponsible,” adding that the Dutch parent’s claim about contractual payment was “misleading and highly deceptive,” according to a statement
Artificial intelligence (AI) giant Nvidia Corp’s most advanced chips would be reserved for US companies and kept out of China and other countries, US President Donald Trump said. During an interview that aired on Sunday on CBS’ 60 Minutes program and in comments to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump said only US customers should have access to the top-end Blackwell chips offered by Nvidia, the world’s most valuable company by market capitalization. “The most advanced, we will not let anybody have them other than the United States,” he told CBS, echoing remarks made earlier to reporters as he returned to Washington
RSS