HTC Corp (宏達電), the world’s fifth-largest smartphone maker, began operations at its new European headquarters in Slough, England, yesterday in an effort to strengthen ties with its partners and operators throughout Europe.
HTC’s prior European headquarters had been in London and expanded from just five employees in 2005 to more than 500 people as of this year, the Taoyuan-based company said in a statement.
“HTC is growing on all fronts in 2011,” CEO Peter Chou (周永明) said in the statement. “We’re attracting new, exciting talent to the senior management team and increasing our commitment to local markets through investment in people and partnerships.”
“Our new European office is a natural next step to show our commitment to the EMEA [Europe, the Middle East and Africa] market,” Chou added.
The new facility will house the senior management, sales, marketing and engineering teams for its HTC EMEA and HTC UK businesses, the statement said.
HTC’s smartphone shipments surpassed 20 million units for the first time last year, up more than 100 percent from the previous year. Its consolidated sales hit a new high of NT$278.8 billion (US$9.6 billion) last year, growing 93 percent from 2009.
The world’s No. 5 smartphone maker sold 9.7 million smartphones in the first three months this year — an increase of 192 percent year-on-year.
The company predicts second-quarter shipments will hit 11 million to 11.5 million units, up 110 percent to 113 percent from a year earlier.
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