Taipei, May 27 (CNA) HTC Corp. said Monday it had learned a lesson from a panel supply issue between the Taiwanese company and the display unit of arch-rival Samsung Electronics Co. that supply chain management can be a competitive edge.

Jack Tong, president of HTC North Asia, recalled that when the HTC Desire was launched in the first quarter of 2010, the phone was using an active-matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) display supplied by Samsung.

But once the HTC Desire was welcomed by global consumers and telecom operators at the time, Samsung "strategically declined" to supply its AMOLED displays to the smartphone maker, Tong said at a local forum on mobile broadband.

"We found that key component supply can be used as a competitive weapon," he said.

The HTC executive added that Samsung is good at vertically integrating its supply chain and marketing, and Taiwanese brands will need to work closely with local and global manufacturing partners to come up with more innovative products.

The Ministry of Economic Affairs said in January that it hoped to develop a mobile handset industry chain in Taiwan as a way of helping local manufacturers cut costs.

The ministry said it was also seeking to persuade foreign AMOLED display technology and production equipment plants to relocate to Taiwan, with seven or eight Japanese AMOLED material and equipment plants having already been contacted for that purpose.

No progress in that effort has been announced to date.

The goal, the ministry said, is for HTC, Acer Inc. and Asustek Computer Inc. to use parts made in Taiwan, which would help keep component makers in the country.

(By Jeffrey Wu)
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