Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC Corp (宏達電) is unlikely to regain its market position with its new devices operating on the Windows Phone 8 (WP8) system, because of the company’s inability to differentiate its hardware, US brokerage Morgan Stanley said in a research note on Friday.
HTC is expected to launch its first devices running on Microsoft Corp’s WP8 on Sept. 19 in New York, as well as a Windows 8 tablet or a 5-inch Android smartphone.
Media suggested that HTC’s first WP8 smartphones may look similar to rival Samsung Electronics Co’s Atvi S, sporting 5-inch LCD displays, dual-core processors, integrated near field communication (NFC) technology and HSDPA/Wi-Fi wireless connectivity.
“In terms of hardware specifications, we think it will be difficult for HTC to regain share quickly aided by Windows 8-based smartphones, given less differentiation, except pricing,” said Jasmine Lu (呂智穎), a Hong Kong-based analyst at Morgan Stanley.
“We think the winning formula has shifted from technology to scale, marketing and branding,” she said in the note.
The opportunity for WP8, Lu said, lies in the US if wireless operators decide to more aggressively embrace WP8 as the third ecosystem, rather than the ones led by Google Inc and Apple Inc, to diversify their risks in view of the ongoing legal dispute between Apple and Samsung.
According to research firm Gartner Inc, Windows is expected to capture a 10.4 percent share of global smartphone operating systems next year, up from only 3.9 percent this year.
Furthermore, the share of Google’s Android operating system would slide from the dominant 60.3 percent this year to 57.9 percent next year, while Apple’s iOS would increase from 22 percent to 23.1 percent, Gartner forecast.
Meanwhile, HTC chairwoman Cher Wang (王雪紅) said on Saturday that she has faith her company will win the ongoing patent litigation against rival Apple.
On the sidelines of the APEC summit held in Vladivostok, Russia, Wang said she remains optimistic about HTC’s chances to win the lawsuit against Apple.
The comment came after Bloomberg reported on Friday that Apple may face difficulties in invalidating two HTC patents related to data transmission in wireless devices, citing a judge at the US International Trade Commission.
While Wang declined to comment on the specific case, as she said she was in Russia simply for the APEC summit, the chairwoman said: “I am always upbeat about the odds HTC holds in patent litigation.”
“I always have confidence in HTC,” Wang said.
When talking about HTC’s efforts to penetrate emerging markets like Russia, Wang said the company has grasped nearly 9 percent of the Russian smartphone market, up from 6 percent last year.
With great potential for growth in Russia, HTC is determined to raise its investments there, especially as the giant country is now a member of the World Trade Organization, she said.
Shares in HTC gained 3.15 percent on Friday to close at NT$262 in Taipei trading.
HORMUZ ISSUE: The US president said he expected crude prices to drop at the end of the war, which he called a ‘minor excursion’ that could continue ‘for a little while’ The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait started reducing oil production, as the near-closure of the crucial Strait of Hormuz ripples through energy markets and affects global supply. Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) is “managing offshore production levels to address storage requirements,” the company said in a statement, without giving details. Kuwait Petroleum Corp said it was lowering production at its oil fields and refineries after “Iranian threats against safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz.” The war in the Middle East has all but closed Hormuz, the narrow waterway linking the Persian Gulf to the open seas,
Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) yesterday said the DRAM supply crunch could extend through 2028, as the artificial intelligence (AI) boom has led the world’s major memory makers to dramatically reduce production of standard DRAM and allocate a significant portion of their capacity for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips. The most severe supply constraints would stretch to the first half of next year due to “very limited” increases in new DRAM capacity worldwide, Nanya Technology president Lee Pei-ing (李培瑛) told a news briefing. The company plans to increase monthly 12-inch wafer capacity to 20,000 in the first half of 2028 after a
Taiwan has enough crude oil reserves for more than 100 days and sufficient natural gas reserves for more than 11 days, both above the regulatory safety requirement, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said yesterday, adding that the government would prioritize domestic price stability as conflicts in the Middle East continue. Overall, energy supply for this month is secure, and the government is continuing efforts to ensure sufficient supply for next month, Kung told reporters after meeting with representatives from business groups at the ministry in Taipei. The ministry has been holding daily cross-ministry meetings at the Executive Yuan to ensure
RATIONING: The proposal would give the Trump administration ample leverage to negotiate investments in the US as it decides how many chips to give each country US officials are debating a new regulatory framework for exporting artificial intelligence (AI) chips and are considering requiring foreign nations to invest in US AI data centers or security guarantees as a condition for granting exports of 200,000 chips or more, according to a document seen by Reuters. The rules are not yet final and could change. They would be the first attempt to regulate the flow of AI chips to US allies and partners since US President Donald Trump’s administration said it rescinded its predecessor’s so-called AI diffusion rules. Those rules sought to keep a significant amount of AI
RSS