The Taiwan Stock Exchange has removed smartphone maker HTC Corp (宏達電) from its index of blue-chip companies, signaling the dramatic decline of a business that was once the nation’s No. 1 brand and dazzled consumers with some of the world’s first Android handsets.
The exchange removed HTC from its FTSE TWSE Taiwan 50 index yesterday, after the company’s market value fell below the level required for inclusion in the market benchmark. The index lists Taiwan’s 50 biggest companies, which together represent 70 percent of the market’s value.
It is a humbling comedown for a company that once sold more than one in 10 of phones worldwide, received plaudits for innovation and represented Taiwan’s ambitions to spawn its own globally recognized electronics brands.
Photo: AP
In the past several years, HTC has struggled because of marketing and supply chain glitches, as well as intense competition from Apple Inc, Samsung Electronics and Chinese makers such as Xiaomi Inc (小米). Last month, it announced a 15 percent cut in its staff of about 15,700 after a second-quarter loss of US$247 million.
“They made a lot of missteps, but they were also caught in the crosshairs of a shift to commoditization of the market,” said John Brebeck, senior Taipei adviser with Hong Kong investment consultancy Peace Field.
HTC’s decline began as the number of smartphone vendors surged along with total shipments that reached 1.2 billion units last year, up 28 percent over 2013. Samsung and Apple captured the US through sales contracts with wireless carriers, while local Chinese brands, such as Lenovo (聯想) and Xiaomi, led in China, as HTC was trying to establish a customer base. Its world market share is estimated now at between 3 and 4 percent.
HTC attributes its losses to slowing use of high-end Android phones, changes in its product lineup and increased competition.
It will keep working on high-end handsets, along with connected devices and “virtual reality,” the company’s media office said last week.
“We remain confident that, with the diversification of our product portfolio and our continued investment in innovation, our market share will grow,” it said.
Analysts say HTC underspent on marketing, perhaps underestimating the impact of the iconic name recognition of Apple and aggressive publicity campaigns by Samsung.
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
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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