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Smartphone maker HTC Corp. plans to start selling two of its five new smartphones that run the Microsoft Windows Phone 7 in Taiwan next week through two local telecom carriers, in a move to heat up the local mobile handset market.
Taiwan’s largest telecom operator Chunghwa Telecom issued an email statement saying it will begin to sell HTC HD7 and HTC 7 Mozart on Nov. 11, while the country’s second-largest telecom carrier, Taiwan Mobile Co., will launch the HTC HD7 only.
Sales of HTC’s Windows Phone 7 (WP7) have been better than expected in other markets, where telecom operators — such as Germany’s O2 and Australia’s Telstra — completely sold out their WP7 inventories since the late-October launch, market sources reported.
The news may encourage WP7 allies before the Nov. 8 launch of HTC 7 Surround and HTC HD7 in the United States, the largest smartphone market.
In the third quarter, HTC shipped 5.8 million smartphones globally for a 7.2-percent market share, slipping to fourth place in the world market, and for the first time surpassed by Samsung Electronics Co., according to a report released Thursday by market tracker International Data Corp. (IDC).
Samsung has sold more than 5 million units of one of its smartphones, the Android-based “Galaxy S,” since its launch in July.
Global smartphone shipments, which were up by about 90 percent to 81.1 million in the July-September period compared to the same quarter in 2009, have already exceeded 200 million units for the first three quarters, with a year-on-year growth of 67.6 percent, IDC said.
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