Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (遠傳電信) yesterday said that chances are good its 5G subscription penetration rate would reach 30 percent ahead of schedule on the back of strong presale orders of the new iPhone series.
The telecom expects to sell 20 to 30 percent more devices by the end of this year from the iPhone 14 series than the previous-generation iPhone 13 models in the same period last year, as presale orders are nearly double, it said.
Persistent expansion of its 5G subscriber base has made that group about 25 percent of its overall postpaid subscribers, compared with about 20 percent at the end of the second quarter, Far EasTone Telecommunications said.
Photo: CNA
The carrier said that it has a goal of 30 percent 5G subscriptions by Dec. 31.
Its subscribers who use iPhones usually sign long-term contracts averaging 30 months, it said.
This year, most of the contracts signed by people seeking an iPhone 14 phone have top-end subscriptions with a minimum payment of NT$1,399 per month, it said.
Sixty to 70 percent of them have contracts of 36 to 48 months, it said.
The company aims to sell more than 200,000 iPhone 14s by the end of this year, it said, after Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信), the nation’s biggest telecom, announced the same target.
The new models generated three times as many presale orders as the company obtained last year when the iPhone 13 models were released, Chunghwa Telecom chairman Sheih Chi-mau (謝繼茂) said.
At the rate the new models are selling, the telecom could sell more than 200,000 of the new iPhones by the end of this year, he said.
The hype surrounding the iPhone 14 might help Chunghwa Telecom hit its target of 30 percent 5G penetration by the end of this year, Sheih said.
The most popular color seems to be purple, followed by starlight, which combined made up 70 percent of presales, Sheih said.
The new devices, which went on sale yesterday, are available in “midnight” (black), purple, “starlight” (white), red and blue.
Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大) chief business officer Tony Lin (林東閔) said that his firm had received twice as many orders for iPhone 14s during presale as it did last year for iPhone 13s.
About 80 percent of its customers who purchased new iPhones bought the iPhone 14 Pro, which is expected to drive up subscriptions to the company’s 5G plans by 20 to 30 percent, Lin said.
Taiwan Star Telecom Corp (台灣之星) said in a statement that its presales of iPhone 14s have grown 20 percent over presales of iPhone 13s last year.
The most popular color among its customers was purple, followed by blue, and the hottest models were the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max, together accounting for 80 percent of its sales, it said.
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