HTC Corp’s (宏達電) bigger version of its One M9 is likely go on sale in select European markets as it enjoys better sales than the original One M9, a source familiar with the matter said.
HTC developer LlabTooFeR tweeted on Friday that the One M9+ will be available in Germany, Italy, Russia and “some other Western/Eastern EU countries” in the third quarter of this year, without elaborating.
Launched in April with customized features for the Chinese market, the M9+ is available in only a handful of Asian markets, including Taiwan, China, Hong Kong and Singapore, according to a report on Saturday by Japanese Web site Gadget News, which is operated by Tokyo Sangyo Shimbun Inc.
ROBUST DEMAND
However, HTC may consider changing its sales strategy for the Asian-edition flagship device because initial demand for the M9+ in Taiwan had outpaced that of the M9, the report said.
HTC was not immediately available for comment yesterday.
The major enhancements of the M9+ include a 5.2-inch 2K display with a resolution of 1,440 x 2,560 pixels, a MediaTek MT6795T octa-core 2.2GHz mobile processor, a fingerprint scanner built into a home button on the front, a new and improved Duo Camera and support for up to 2TB of microSD external storage.
The M9+ runs on “China Sense” software, designed especially for the Chinese market, which, for example, allows users to make purchases on Chinese e-commerce marketplace Taobao by simply scanning their fingerprints.
The method is similar to Apple Inc’s mobile payment service Apply Pay.
FINANCIAL LOSSES
On June 5, HTC lowered its second-quarter sales forecast and said it expects a net loss of nearly NT$10 per share for the April-June period, a revision from an earlier earnings forecast of NT$0.06 to NT$0.34 per share.
It cited worsening global demand for high-end Android devices and the company’s weak sales in China.
Taiwan Stock Exchange Corp yesterday issued a letter imposing a demerit on HTC for adding a one-off impairment of NT$2.9 billion (US$93.64 million) for idled assets and some prepaid expenses in its revised financial forecast released on June 5.
The Taiwan Stock Exchange said in a statement that the NT$2.9 billion impairment expense was not included in HTC’s previous financial forecast released on April 28, and it deemed the smartphone maker’s assumptions for its original financial forecast were not reasonably evaluated.
HTC said that it would abide by Taiwan Stock Exchange regulations.
Additional reporting by Lauly Li
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