HTC Corp (宏達電), the world’s No. 5 smartphone brand, plans to expand its retail stores in China to between 3,000 and 4,000, from the current 2,000, by the end of this year in view of China’s strong demand for its smartphones, a company official said yesterday.
These HTC concept stores will be launched in eastern and western China, covering first-tier cities — such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou — and major second-tier and third-tier cities, such as Nanjing, the company said.
“We hope to offer premium services and make sure customers have a high-quality experience when walking into HTC-managed concept stores,” HTC North Asia-Pacific region president Jack Tong (董俊良) told a media briefing after the company officially launched its first “One” series smartphone model in Taipei.
Photo: AFP
The “HTC One X” model — which is scheduled to be released in Taiwan on Monday — will be the company’s global flagship smartphone this year and should help its revenues rebound, starting from the second quarter, Tong said.
The model will be launched in all major markets worldwide, one after another, starting next month.
“From my observation, the momentum of HTC One X brings to mind the legendary sales momentum of the ‘HTC Desire,’ the company’s flagship smartphone in 2010,” Tong said.
HTC Desire, which was launched in May 2010, helped company shipments grow by 63.1 percent in the second quarter of that year from the previous quarter, with HTC’s market share increasing to 8 percent from 5.3 percent, researcher iSuppli Corp said in a report in October 2010.
Using its experience of the HTC Desire series, Tong said the company would initiate a series of marketing strategies to promote the HTC One, and would introduce two more HTC One series smartphone products — HTC One S and HTC One V.
HTC One X, which has been available for pre-sale in Taiwan since Tuesday last week, had attracted about 50,000 unit orders as of yesterday, Tong said.
The One series, with a uni-body design and HTC Sense 4.0 software, provides better camera functions and audio quality, the company said in a statement.
In order to offer a higher-quality environment for customers to experience the model’s functions, the company will construct a special experience zone in at least 100 retail stores in Taiwan, Tong said.
These retailers will include the company’s self-collaborated channels, as well as channels under the nation’s three major telecommunications operators — Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大) and Far Eas-Tone Telecommunications Co (遠傳電信), HTC said.
The Eurovision Song Contest has seen a surge in punter interest at the bookmakers, becoming a major betting event, experts said ahead of last night’s giant glamfest in Basel. “Eurovision has quietly become one of the biggest betting events of the year,” said Tomi Huttunen, senior manager of the Online Computer Finland (OCS) betting and casino platform. Betting sites have long been used to gauge which way voters might be leaning ahead of the world’s biggest televised live music event. However, bookmakers highlight a huge increase in engagement in recent years — and this year in particular. “We’ve already passed 2023’s total activity and
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) today announced that his company has selected "Beitou Shilin" in Taipei for its new Taiwan office, called Nvidia Constellation, putting an end to months of speculation. Industry sources have said that the tech giant has been eyeing the Beitou Shilin Science Park as the site of its new overseas headquarters, and speculated that the new headquarters would be built on two plots of land designated as "T17" and "T18," which span 3.89 hectares in the park. "I think it's time for us to reveal one of the largest products we've ever built," Huang said near the
China yesterday announced anti-dumping duties as high as 74.9 percent on imports of polyoxymethylene (POM) copolymers, a type of engineering plastic, from Taiwan, the US, the EU and Japan. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s findings conclude a probe launched in May last year, shortly after the US sharply increased tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, computer chips and other imports. POM copolymers can partially replace metals such as copper and zinc, and have various applications, including in auto parts, electronics and medical equipment, the Chinese ministry has said. In January, it said initial investigations had determined that dumping was taking place, and implemented preliminary
Intel Corp yesterday reinforced its determination to strengthen its partnerships with Taiwan’s ecosystem partners including original-electronic-manufacturing (OEM) companies such as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and chipmaker United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電). “Tonight marks a new beginning. We renew our new partnership with Taiwan ecosystem,” Intel new chief executive officer Tan Lip-bu (陳立武) said at a dinner with representatives from the company’s local partners, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the US chip giant’s presence in Taiwan. Tan took the reins at Intel six weeks ago aiming to reform the chipmaker and revive its past glory. This is the first time Tan
RSS