The launch of the “One” series smartphones from HTC Corp (宏達電), the world’s No. 5 smartphone brand, at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) this week received mixed responses from foreign investors.
“HTC’s new devices and strategy put it more into competition with LG or Motorola, as it cannot compete with Apple’s entire ecosystem and Samsung’s scale, price and component advantages,” Macquarie Equities Research said in a report yesterday.
“We like these devices, but do not think they can steal customers from Samsung and Apple, which are also scheduled to launch new phones in the coming three months,” it said.
At the world’s top mobile phone exposition held in Barcelona, Spain, HTC announced its brand-new flagship One series containing three new models — HTC One X, HTC One S and HTC One V.
One of the selling points is that the phones offer 25GB of two-year free storage from Dropbox, a cloud application that can be used by consumers to store images.
In addition, HTC One phones have built in various functions that allow users to take quality pictures even in unfavorable lighting conditions and to take pictures during video recordings.
According to Morgan Stanley, the One series attracted lots of interest at the MWC, but HTC would have to brand itself as the maker offering the best “camera experience” through heavy marketing to enhance public awareness.
This would be harder than for Samsung Electronics Inc, which can brand itself as a leader in display quality through the AMOLED panel in its Galaxy series, Apple Inc — which can focus on music or MP3 experience by leveraging the success of the iPod — or Sony Corp, which can duplicate its digital still camera experience, Morgan Stanley said.
HTC plans to streamline the number of models this year and rebrand them under the same family.
While Macquarie and Morgan Stanley were unconvinced by the launch of the One series, Goldman Sachs was more optimistic.
“We were impressed HTC seems to have resolved most of its hardware issues in the second half of last year. Its new marketing strategy of focusing on segmentation and killer features [camera and audio] should position HTC to regain consumer mindshare,” Goldman Sachs said in a report released yesterday.
HTC expects its global launch of the One family to start next month through more than 140 operators worldwide.
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