Smartphone maker HTC Corp (宏達電) yesterday marked its foray into the Chinese market with the introduction of a series of models under its own brand name and partnerships with two key Chinese firms.
The company is joining forces with China Mobile Ltd (中國移動), China’s largest mobile operator with 554 million subscribers, and Gome Electrical Appliances Holding Ltd (國美電器) — China’s largest electronics retailer — to market HTC phones, HTC said yesterday while unveiling four models at a press conference in Beijing.
HTC has been working with Shanghai-based strategic partner Dopod Communications Corp (多普達通訊) to deliver models that carry the “Dopod” brand in China since 2003. To date, Chinese consumers have been unable to buy “HTC” branded phones unless they were purchased through the gray market.
“We are proud to introduce the HTC brand in China and look forward to bringing a fresh customer-centric smartphone experience to consumers in China,” HTC chairwoman Cher Wang (王雪紅) said in a statement.
HTC has declared this year a “brand year” for the company, saying it would aggressively beef up brand awareness in various markets by launching marketing campaigns and unveiling new smartphones.
HTC does not want to miss out out on China’s fast-growing smartphone market. Research firm IDC estimates that smartphone sales in China will reach 26 million units this year, up 50 percent from last year.
Company statistics showed that Asia only accounted for 20.8 percent for HTC’s total sales last year, lagging behind North America and Europe, at 48.8 percent and 30.4 percent respectively.
“Management continues to view this year as an investment year for the China smartphone industry, and revenue contribution will continue to be minimal compared with the US and Europe,” a company official said.
“We retain our long-term bullish tone on China’s smartphone growth potential and it will likely be a big revenue contributor to our growth over the next couple of years,” he said.
In the future, HTC said it would develop models running on the TD-SCDMA network — China’s proprietary 3G standard.
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