Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC Corp (宏達電) yesterday denied it is pulling out of the US tablet market as local media had reported.
Several local media, including the state-owned Central News Agency (CNA), reported that HTC planned to temporarily withdraw from the US tablet PC market.
Citing a report published on the technology news site CNET on Wednesday, local media said HTC had no plans to introduce new Android-based tablets in that market in the short term.
Maggie Cheng (鄭雅蓮), a spokeswoman for HTC, told the Taipei Times that the CNET report was misinterpreted by local media.
“The point is that we are in no hurry to introduce another ‘me too’ Android tablet in that market,” Cheng said on the telephone, without elaborating.
CNET said the Taiwanese company “doesn’t plan on announcing a new Android-based tablet for the United States anytime soon,” after it introduced HTC Flyer, Evo View 4G and HTC Jetstream tablets some time ago, which “have run through their planned lifecycles.”
Citing a written statement by Jeff Gordon, HTC’s global online communications manager, CNET said the company still favored the US market.
“We’re continuing to watch the tablet market very, very closely for the right opportunity to re-enter in a way in which we’re not just offering a “me too” tablet, but a product that’s compelling, differentiated, and inspiring to our customers,” the technology site quoted Gordon as saying.
HTC introduced its HTC Flyer tablet during the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona in February last year and then debuted its Evo View 4G tablet at the International CTIA wireless industry conference in Orlando, Florida, in March last year, before it began selling its second tablet, the 10-inch Jetstream, in the US in September last year.
HTC has faced lackluster sales from its tablets in the US market, where the company is facing fierce competition with Apple Inc’s iPad, Google Inc’s Nexus and Amazon.com Inc’s Kindle Fire, in addition to other Android tablets.
Additional reporting by Lisa Wang
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