HTC Corp’s (宏達電) latest bargain handset has failed to attract Chinese customers, with less than 350 units preordered on two major Chinese-commerce sites over the past two weeks.
The smartphone vendor has pinned its hopeS on its newest flagship HTC 10 for a significant sales contribution this quarter.
HTC launched the handset domestically on April 10 and introduced a cheaper variation, the HTC 10 Lifestyle, in China on April 25.
The company launched a two-week preorder campaign on its official Web site as well as on China’s two major e-commerce platforms, TMall (天貓) and Jingdong Mall (京東), that day.
As of yesterday afternoon, HTC received only 342 orders for the HTC 10 Lifestyle on TMall and Jingdong Mall, a sign that customers were not interested in the product, which is powered by a mid-end processor.
The HTC 10 Lifestyle uses Qualcomm Inc’s Snapdragon 620 processor, which is less powerful than the Snapdragon 820 processor in the HTC 10 launched in Taiwan, the US and the UK.
HTC said choosing a different processor version for the HTC 10 for selected markets is to cater to the mid-end smartphone demand for a certain market.
It plans to launch the HTC 10 in Chinese stores this quarter.
HTC is scheduled to host a teleconference today to announce its earnings performance in the first quarter, and is likely to shed light on the sales of its flagship HTC 10 worldwide and its virtual reality Vive headset.
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
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six