HTC’s ‘Touch Dual’ smartphone debuts in South Korea
The world’s top smartphone maker High Tech Computer Corp. announced a deal with Korean telecoms operator SK Telecom for its “Touch Dual” phone, marking its first entry into the highly competitive market.
SK Telecom launched the HTC touch-screen Windows Mobile smartphone in South Korea Tuesday and is also considering launching HTC’s next version “Touch Diamond” smartphone later this year.
“We expect the HTC smartphone to be a 100,000-unit seller for this year,” said Chung Dae-Hyon, a senior manager at SK Telecom. “And this is only a start. We may be ready to launch one international brand after another,” he added.
Taiwan’s High Tech Computer (HTC), which makes a smartphone to rival Apple Inc.’s iPhone and Research In Motion Ltd.’s BlackBerry, has seen its stock surge in recent days after Barron’s said it could rise as much as 70 percent in the next year, after HTC launched a third-generation Touch Diamond smartphone in May.
The “Touch Dual” phone in alliance with SK Telecom is priced at roughly 500,000 won (US$478.3), and offers pictures, e-mail, messages, among other features.
Shares in the 11 year-old company rose 3 percent Tuesday, bucking the 1.5 percent fall in Taiwan’s main TAIEX index to a 16-month closing low due to worries over high inflation and slow economic growth.
HTC’s stock, which currently trades at a forward price to earnings ratio of 13.1 times, is cheap compared to its peers, Barron’s said, and should rise in tandem with strong sales.
Apple’s stock trades at 32.5 times, and shares in Research in Motion, roughly 32 times.
In May, Chief Executive Officer Peter Chou told Reuters HTC expects sales to grow by up to 30 percent in 2008 on surging demand for its own-brand products in emerging markets, particularly China and India.
The company — which has sold more than 3 million of its own-brand HTC Touch mobile phones since June last year– plans to launch the world’s first Google “Android” Linux-based mobile phone by the end of the year, ahead of rivals.
In a departure from their dependence on domestic mobile phone brands like Samsung or LG, South Korean mobile carriers are launching non-Korean brands for smartphones.
International vendors such as HTC, RIM, Apple and Nokia will be able to sign up with local carriers to put their international bestsellers in the hands of South Koreans.
SK Telecom has also said that it is ready to launch the Blackberry smartphone from Canada-based Research in Motion (RIM) later this year if the ongoing talks bear fruit.
South Korea may not be in the list of countries getting Apple’s iPhone 3G in its marketplace on July 18, but talk is under way between mobile carrier KTF and Apple to launch the iPhone 3G in South Korea.
Even top-notch vendor Nokia may make a comeback after it pulled out of South Korea in January 2003 after two years of sluggish sales in South Korea. Both SK Telecom and KTF have said they are in talks with Nokia to launch Nokia models of smartphones.
This move is a departure from South Korea’s dependence on Samsung or LG brands for most of the cellphones sold in the country. Almost 14 million cellphones were sold there between January and the end of June.
Tags: 3G, iPhone, LG, Nokia, Samsung