Smartphone maker HTC Corp (宏達電) yesterday launched its first 4G entry-level smartphone in the domestic market, with an eye to seizing 25 percent of the low-price market segment this year.
HTC has previously resisted entering this market, and its market share has dwindled as more affordable models prevailed over premium ones.
The firm had never launched a 4G smartphone priced at about NT$5,000 (US$158.42) in Taiwan before, HTC North Asia president Jack Tong (董俊良) said, but it is hopeful that the new handset can help it reach its goal of selling more than 375,000 4G and 3G entry-level smartphones in the nation this year.
Photo: Wu Pei-hua, Taipei Times
That translates into about a quarter of the nation’s low-price smartphone market of 1.5 million units this year, Tong said.
“Following our success in selling the mid-range smartphone Desire 816 and partnerships with local telecom operators and retailers, we believe that our new entry-level 4G model has a chance to help us achieve our sales goal,” Tong told reporters on the sidelines of the HTC Desire 626 product launch.
Tong said the 5-inch Desire 626, priced at NT$5,990, has a 13-megapixel rear camera and 5-megapixel front camera that should attract budget-conscious young users who like to take selfies.
While the company on Friday told an investors’ conference call that revenues this quarter are expected to fall by between 6.05 percent and 13.36 percent sequentially due to a slow season, Tong said that in its home market, HTC should be able to maintain double-digit percentage growth.
“The first-quarter performance in Taiwan will be very impressive, driven by our full range of smartphones and revenues from direct stores,” Tong said, adding that robust sales of HTC’s action camera RE should also boost revenues this quarter.
He said the company would evaluate the sales performance and popularity of the HTC RE in Taiwan before making a decision on launching another new non-smartphone product.
In related news, South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co yesterday also launched new mid-tier smartphones in Taiwan.
Andy Tu (杜偉昱), general manager of Samsung Electronics Taiwan’s information technology and mobile communication team, said the latest Galaxy E7 is the company’s first mid-tier model to feature a 5.5-inch display and priced at NT$9,990 in Taiwan.
“As smartphones priced under NT$10,000 accounted for 52 percent of the market share last year, we expect the market share of mid-end smartphones to continue to grow this year,” Tu told reporters at the product launch.
The company also launched two other lower-end smartphones — the Galaxy E5 and the Galaxy Grand Max — in Taiwan.
The 5.25-inch display Galaxy Grand Max is priced at NT$7,790, while the price of the 5-inch Galaxy E5 will be announced at a later date, Samsung said.
Cairo’s new monorail slices across the city skyline, running above the familiar chaos of blaring horns and aging buses’ exhaust fumes that mark rush hour below. The US$4.5 billion monorail, opened this month, is among Egypt’s most prominent new transport projects, part of a debt-funded infrastructure drive criticized for sapping state finances while bringing limited benefits to most of the country’s 109 million people. “It feels like you’re in a different country,” said Ramy Sayed, a restaurant manager, aboard a driverless Innovia 300 train. “No noise, no traffic, we’re not used to this.” The eastern line runs 56km from the bustling middle-class
Starlux Airlines Co (星宇航空) today unveiled a long-haul network expansion plan at a shareholders’ meeting in Taipei, including direct flights to Barcelona, Spain, and Zurich, Switzerland, as well as a service connecting Taipei, Sydney and New Zealand. Starlux is to become the first Taiwanese carrier to offer non-stop services to the two European cities, while the inaugural oceanic route is expected to expand transit opportunities within the Australia-New Zealand market, Starlux said. Flight services to Chicago, Dallas, Washington and New York are under evaluation, the airline added. Prior to the shareholders’ meeting, the airline earlier this year announced that it would be
Taiwanese prosecutors suspect that three people successfully smuggled at least one shipment of Nvidia Corp artificial intelligence (AI) chips to China after first exporting them to Japan, people familiar with the matter said. The trio was detained last week by the Keelung District Prosecutors’ Office for allegedly falsifying documents related to exports of Super Micro Computer Inc servers containing advanced Nvidia chips, which the US has barred from sale to China without a license from Washington. The move marked Taiwan’s first public crackdown on AI chip diversion after years of pressure from the US to take a more active role in curtailing
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) employee bonuses are likely to grow more than 30 percent this year, in line with the past few years as the company’s profits continue to set new records, an anonymous source cited TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) as saying yesterday. TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, is committed to taking care of its workers, the source said, citing Wei’s meeting with employees yesterday morning. Wei also expressed gratitude to employees for their contribution to the company’s improving bottom line, the source added. Since 2023, TSMC’s employee bonuses have grown at an annual rate of
RSS