Smartphone maker HTC Corp (宏達電) yesterday said it planned to open an online store for its products in Taiwan next month, in a bid to capitalize on the rising mobile shopping trend in the nation.
To celebrate the opening of the online store, the company said its new mid-priced Desire 816, which features 3G network capability, dual SIM cards and an eight-core processor, would be available over the HTC eStore on Wednesday next week.
HTC is to launch a new low-end 3G smartphone, the Desire 526G+, priced at NT$3,990 (US$128) with 8 gigabytes of memory in the online store, the company said in a statement.
HTC North Asia president Jack Tong (董俊良) recently said that the company foresees a growing trend for online shopping on handheld devices, and committed to focus more on online platforms this year.
HTC plans to launch lower-priced smartphones on its online store rather than the more expensive models, because Taiwanese consumers are more comfortable shopping in brick-and-mortar stores for high-end smartphones, Tong said, citing research on consumer behavior.
He said that there is still demand for 3G smartphones in the nation, and the company would launch low-end 3G smartphones to secure its position in the market.
Tong said he expects online sales to account for less than 10 percent of HTC’s total revenue, as the company has extensive partnerships with local telecom operators and retailers.
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