HTC Corp (宏達電) remained the fifth-largest supplier of mobile phones in the US, but the struggling manufacturer has narrowed the gap between it and the leading players, research firm comScore said on Wednesday.
According to comScore, 234 million Americans aged 13 and older used smartphones and feature phones from April to June this year.
Samsung Electronics Co ranked as the top handset maker with 25.6 percent of US mobile subscribers, followed by LG Electronics Inc (18.8 percent), Apple Inc (15.4 percent), Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc (11.7 percent) and HTC (6.4 percent), it said.
Among the top five vendors, Apple recorded the biggest gain of 1.4 percentage points from the previous three-month period, while HTC’s market share rose 0.4 percentage points.
Google Inc’s unit, Motorola, dipped 1.1 percentage points, while LG and Samsung declined 0.5 and 0.4 percentages points respectively, it said.
In April, HTC said it would rely more on the smartphone markets in Europe and Asia in the face of the stiff competition in the US.
AT&T Inc, the second-largest US mobile operator, last month cut the price of HTC’s One X flagship smartphone from US$199 to US$99 for a two-year contract, less than three months after its launch.
Some analysts viewed the move as a bad signal because HTC had been able to sell its phones for six to 12 months prior to the price cuts.
HTC has also been doing well in China, with its cheaper “New Desire” series, which lifted its market share in the below-2,500 yuan (US$392) segment from 3 percent in the first quarter to 6 percent in June, they said.
The company is scheduled to report its latest quarterly results today, with two foreign brokerages forecasting a weak outlook for the struggling smartphone vendor, citing a worsening product mix and tougher competition.
“We maintain our view initiated since October 2011 that HTC is squeezed in the middle, with smartphone commoditization being accelerated by chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科),” said Aaron Jeng (鄭明宗), a Taipei-based Nomura Holdings Inc analyst.
“What’s worse, HTC seems to be losing share in the high-end smartphone space despite launching its One X flagship model both in China and the US,” he wrote in a research note on Monday.
“We expect competition will become tougher over the next 6-9 months, with iPhone 5 hitting the One X, and China-branded low-price dual-core and quad-core phones hitting the ‘New Desire,’” Jeng wrote.
In a separate note, Bank of America Merrill Lynch said it expected a 4 percent quarter-on-quarter drop in HTC’s third-quarter sales, with an operating margin of 8.6 percent.
Merrill Lynch said it expected HTC to launch a 5-inch Android smartphone, and models running on the touch-friendly Windows 8 system later this year.
However, the Windows-based smartphone has only a 4 percent market share currently and will likely remain a niche market player this year, while big-screen models will also face strong competition from Samsung, it said.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch Merrill Lynch analyst Robert Cheng (鄭勝榮) said HTC’s most important model launch was likely to be in the first quarter of next year, and its momentum in the second half of this year would be muted due to a lack of strong models.
“We have witnessed HTC conducting a series of cost-downs and restructuring in its R&D team recently to lift the bottom line,” he said. “However, amazing new models and market position are the key growth factors for the company.”
State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) yesterday signed a letter of intent with Alaska Gasline Development Corp (AGDC), expressing an interest to buy liquefied natural gas (LNG) and invest in the latter’s Alaska LNG project, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a statement. Under the agreement, CPC is to participate in the project’s upstream gas investment to secure stable energy resources for Taiwan, the ministry said. The Alaska LNG project is jointly promoted by AGDC and major developer Glenfarne Group LLC, as Alaska plans to export up to 20 million tonnes of LNG annually from 2031. It involves constructing an 1,290km
NEXT GENERATION: The company also showcased automated machines, including a nursing robot called Nurabot, which is to enter service at a Taichung hospital this year Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) expects server revenue to exceed its iPhone revenue within two years, with the possibility of achieving this goal as early as this year, chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) said on Tuesday at Nvidia Corp’s annual technology conference in San Jose, California. AI would be the primary focus this year for the company, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), as rapidly advancing AI applications are driving up demand for AI servers, Liu said. The production and shipment of Nvidia’s GB200 chips and the anticipated launch of GB300 chips in the second half of the year would propel
‘MAKE OR BREAK’: Nvidia shares remain down more than 9 percent, but investors are hoping CEO Jensen Huang’s speech can stave off fears that the sales boom is peaking Shares in Nvidia Corp’s Taiwanese suppliers mostly closed higher yesterday on hopes that the US artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer would showcase next-generation technologies at its annual AI conference slated to open later in the day. The GPU Technology Conference (GTC) in California is to feature developers, engineers, researchers, inventors and information technology professionals, and would focus on AI, computer graphics, data science, machine learning and autonomous machines. The event comes at a make-or-break moment for the firm, as it heads into the next few quarters, with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s (黃仁勳) keynote speech today seen as having the ability to
WAIT-AND-SEE: Last month’s consumer price index came in at 2.8%, which boosts expectations that the Fed would proceed cautiously to lower inflation sustainably The US Federal Reserve is widely expected to keep interest rates unchanged at its policy meeting this week, treading carefully amid uncertainty over US President Donald Trump’s economic policies, which include spending cuts and sweeping tariffs. Since January, Trump has imposed levies on major trading partners Canada, Mexico and China, and on steel and aluminum imports, roiling financial markets and fanning fears that his plans could tip the world’s biggest economy into a recession. The Trump administration has also embarked on unprecedented cost-cutting efforts that target staff and spending, while the US president has promised tax reductions and deregulation down the road. However,
RSS