HTC Corp (宏達電) yesterday declined to comment on a report that it has abandoned plans to launch a smartwatch any time soon.
The development of the rumored HTC smartwatch, which is reported to be a reworking of Qualcomm Inc’s Toq watch with a Mirasol display that allows for superior visibility, has been discontinued because of rising costs and the lack of a “wow” factor, UK-based gadget news site Pocket-lint reported on Friday last week.
In February, HTC chairwoman Cher Wang (王雪紅) said the firm was planning to unveil its first wearable device in time for this year’s Christmas shopping season.
In an official video titled HTC Design — Behind the Scenes released on YouTube in July, some viewers noticed a mysterious smartwatch on the desk of an HTC employee and another on a monitor in an HTC office.
Although HTC said the device seen in the video was not an actual product for sale, it did hint that some “exciting” new products might be released soon.
Wearable devices could be a new growth driver for HTC, at one point the world’s fourth-largest smartphone maker, which swung back into profit in the second quarter of this year after three quarters of operating losses.
However, the wearable device market has become more crowded at this point, with Samsung Electronics Co, Sony Corp, LG Electronics Inc and Asustek Computer Inc (華碩電腦), launching their new smartwatches at the annual IFA electronics trade show in Germany that opened on Friday last week and runs through tomorrow.
Apple is scheduled to hold a press conference today in which the US electronics giant is expected to unveil two larger models of the iPhone, as well as the long-anticipated “iWatch” smartwatch that could feature health tracking and wireless mobile payment functions.
A report from market research firm comScore Inc on Friday last week also showed HTC continuing to lose ground to bigger rivals in the US smartphone market due to a shortening product lifecycle for its flagship phone.
In the three-month period ending July, HTC remained the fifth-largest smartphone vendor in the US, but its market share declined to 4.7 percent from 5.3 percent in the February-April period, the report said.
In contrast, Apple gained 1 percentage point and led the US market with a 42.4 percent share during the May-July period, while Samsung Electronics trailed in second place, increasing its market share by 0.7 percentage points to 28.4 percent, the report said.
The market share of LG Electronics fell slightly by 0.1 percentage points to 6.4 percent, placing it in third place, it said.
Fourth-placed Motorola Mobility’s share shrank by 0.6 percentage points to 5.7 percent, according to the report.
The data from comScore also showed that 173 million US residents over the age of 13 owned smartphones, comprising 71.8 percent of all mobile phone subscribers in the country.
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