HTC Corp (宏達電), the world’s No. 5 smartphone maker, is planning to collaborate with Taiwanese retail partners to boost its smartphone sales in China, a company executive said on Thursday.
The Taoyuan-based company began using its HTC brand last year to sell smartphones in China, and Jack Tong (董俊良), president of HTC North Asia, said the strategy has paid off, with sales growing at a stable pace in the second quarter.
“This year we will focus on the increase of retail locations and the connection between our brand and channels,” Tong said at a press conference to launch the HTC ChaCha smartphone.
Photo: Patrick Lin, AFP
“Taiwanese retailers Senao International Co (神腦國際) and Synnex Corp (聯強國際) both have a roadmap in China, and we’re in talks with them on cooperative efforts that will mobilize sufficient retail resources in tier one and tier two Chinese cities to increase our sales,” he said.
In the period from April to last month, HTC’s revenue and smartphone shipments in East and Southeast Asia maintained a high level of growth and were in line with the company’s expectations, especially in Taiwan, Vietnam, Hong Kong, South Korea and China, according to Tong.
“Our smartphone sales in Taiwan hit a high in the second quarter, driven by the high purchase volume of domestic telecoms operators,” he said.
“We’ll try hard to retain our good relationship with these carriers, hoping that third-quarter sales will grow sharply from the previous quarter on the back of such models,” he said.
The company had consolidated sales of NT$124.4 billion (US$4.3 billion) in the second quarter, a quarterly record for the company and higher than analysts’ prediction of NT$120 billion.
Meanwhile, HTC yesterday denied a newspaper report that VIA Technologies Inc (威盛電子) is considering selling patents to the company, according to a statement to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
Both HTC and VIA are run by Cher Wang (王雪紅), the richest person in Taiwan according to Forbes magazine’s list of billionaires that was published in March.
The Commercial Times, a -Chinese-language newspaper, said VIA might sell more patents to HTC in a bid to help the latter win patent lawsuits against Apple Inc.
This report came after HTC last week announced it would buy California--based S3 Graphics Co from VIA for US$300 million, as the initial ruling from the US International Trade Commission earlier this month suggested Apple infringed on two patents held by S3 Graphics.
“The report is purely media speculation and untrue,” HTC chief financial officer Winston Yung (容覺生) said in the statement.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY KEVIN CHEN
With this year’s Semicon Taiwan trade show set to kick off on Wednesday, market attention has turned to the mass production of advanced packaging technologies and capacity expansion in Taiwan and the US. With traditional scaling reaching physical limits, heterogeneous integration and packaging technologies have emerged as key solutions. Surging demand for artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance computing (HPC) and high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips has put technologies such as chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS), integrated fan-out (InFO), system on integrated chips (SoIC), 3D IC and fan-out panel-level packaging (FOPLP) at the center of semiconductor innovation, making them a major focus at this year’s trade show, according
DEBUT: The trade show is to feature 17 national pavilions, a new high for the event, including from Canada, Costa Rica, Lithuania, Sweden and Vietnam for the first time The Semicon Taiwan trade show, which opens on Wednesday, is expected to see a new high in the number of exhibitors and visitors from around the world, said its organizer, SEMI, which has described the annual event as the “Olympics of the semiconductor industry.” SEMI, which represents companies in the electronics manufacturing and design supply chain, and touts the annual exhibition as the most influential semiconductor trade show in the world, said more than 1,200 enterprises from 56 countries are to showcase their innovations across more than 4,100 booths, and that the event could attract 100,000 visitors. This year’s event features 17
Germany is to establish its first-ever national pavilion at Semicon Taiwan, which starts tomorrow in Taipei, as the country looks to raise its profile and deepen semiconductor ties with Taiwan as global chip demand accelerates. Martin Mayer, a semiconductor investment expert at Germany Trade & Invest (GTAI), Germany’s international economic promotion agency, said before leaving for Taiwan that the nation is a crucial partner in developing Germany’s semiconductor ecosystem. Germany’s debut at the international semiconductor exhibition in Taipei aims to “show presence” and signal its commitment to semiconductors, while building trust with Taiwanese companies, government and industry associations, he said. “The best outcome
Semiconductor equipment billings in Taiwan are expected to double this year, as manufacturers in the industry are keen to expand production to meet strong global demand for artificial intelligence applications, according to SEMI, which represents companies in the electronics manufacturing and design supply chain. Speaking at a news conference before the opening of Semicon Taiwan trade show tomorrow, SEMI director of industry research and statistics Clark Tseng (曾瑞榆) said semiconductor equipment billings in Taiwan are expected to grow by an annual 100 percent this year, beating an earlier estimate of 70 percent growth. He said that Taiwan received a boost from a
RSS