HTC Corp (宏達電), the world’s No. 5 smartphone maker, unveiled a thinner and sleeker smartphone in New York late on Tuesday, hoping to boost its sales in the crowded mobile market.
The HTC Rhyme, with a unibody design and the latest HTC Sense 3.5 software, comes in three colors and has complementary accessories, such as a docking station, a sports armband and tangle-free headphones, the company said in a statement.
The Rhyme also comes with a tethered accessory called a “charm” that blinks when a user receives a message or a call.
“It’s more respectful than a ring and more noticeable than vibrate,” HTC said.
“HTC keeps listening to consumers’ needs and we’ve observed that many consumers hope their mobile phones can be more user-friendly and personalized,” HTC chief executive Peter Chou (周永明) said in the statement.
The Android-powered smartphone will go on sale in the US on Thursday next week. It will cost US$199 and will be available through Verizon Wireless, the top US mobile provider. The phone will also be available in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the Asia-Pacific region next month.
However, a Taiwanese analyst said that the HTC product launch did not have much of a surprise factor, because the company released only one new model with mid-end specifications.
“While the design is stylish and it’s positioned as a lady’s smartphone, we believe the selling price is too high and the market will be difficult to penetrate due to the iPhone,” Jeff Pu (蒲得宇), equity research analyst at Fubon Securities (富邦證券), wrote in a research note.
Though it lowered its target price for HTC shares to NT$1,050 from NT$1,180, Fubon Securities maintained its “buy” rating.
“While we are not ignoring the macro risks, we believe HTC will have strong growth stories in 2012, such as the growing popularity of 4G LTE [long-term evolution] and volume opportunities in China,” Pu said.
Although ongoing patent litigation with Apple Inc could cast a shadow over the company’s share price, recent developments with Google Inc, such as a patent transfer from Google to HTC, have shown Google’s commitment to strengthening its Android patent portfolio, and that is positive for HTC, Pu said.
Additional reporting by AFP
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