HTC Corp’s (宏達電) flagship smartphone is failing to generate enough sales momentum to conquer the market in Japan, where it is being trounced by South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co, monthly sales rankings by BCN Inc showed.
BCN, a Tokyo-based research firm that tracks retail sales of consumer products in Japan, ranked the HTC J One — a variant of the smartphone carried by Japanese telecommunication operator KDDI Corp — in 18th place in its survey last month, far behind the Samsung Galaxy S4, which was ranked fourth.
The 16-gigabyte model of Apple Inc’s iPhone 5 sold under the AU by KDDI brand — the carrier’s mobile phone unit — became the best-selling phone in the country last month.
In second place was Sony Corp’s Xperia A smartphone and the 16GB model of the iPhone 5 sold via Softbank Corp, the survey results show.
The HTC J One has similar specifications as the HTC One — a 4.7-inch full high-definition display, 1.7 gigahertz quad-core chipset, 32-gigabyte built-in memory, a micro-SD card slot for extra storage and super-fast 4G LTE connectivity.
The new phone went on sale in Japan through au stores early last month, while the Samsung Galaxy S4 hit the Japanese market in May.
In terms of BCN’s weekly sales rankings, the HTC J One had dropped to 26th in the week from June 24 until June 30 from 18th in the previous survey, while the Samsung Galaxy S4 stayed in fourth place.
By contrast, in Taiwan the latest 32GB version of the HTC One replaced the HTC Butterfly as the best-selling model in May, with an 8 percent market share, the latest market survey showed.
The HTC Butterfly dropped to third place, with a 5.5 percent share of overall local mobile phone sales in May, while the 16GB version of the HTC One ranked fifth, with a 4.3 percent share.
Samsung’s 16GB version of the Galaxy S4, which was launched in Taiwan in late April, emerged as the second-best-selling model in May, with a 5.5 percent market share, and the 16GB version of the company’s Galaxy Note 2 took fifth place, with a 5.4 percent share, the survey results show.
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