Taipei, Sept. 24 (CNA) Samsung Electronics Co. of South Korea had the highest sales volume among other suppliers in Taiwan in August, driven by the launch of its latest flagship smartphone the Galaxy Note 9, according to industry sources.

With a 19.6 percent share of sales in Taiwan, Samsung edged up one notch to the top ranking from a month earlier, the sources said over the weekend.

The Galaxy Note 9 was released in Taiwan on Aug. 24 but the 512G model was sold out on the first day of pre-order sales, which started Aug. 15, according to the sources.

Smartphone sales in Taiwan totaled 540,000 units in August, with Samsung accounting for 19.6 percent, Apple Inc. of the U.S. 18.8 percent, Asustek Computer Inc. of Taiwan 15.5 percent, Chinese vendor OPPO 11.5 percent, and Taiwan-based brand HTC Corp. 6.2 percent, the sources said.

In terms of sales value, however, Apple topped the market because of its higher prices, taking a 41 percent share, followed by Samsung (19.8 percent), OPPO (9.9 percent), Asustek (8.8 percent) and Japan's Sony Corp. (6.1 percent), the sources said.

In terms of individual phone models, the most popular in Taiwan were Apple's iPhone 8 Plus 64G, Asustek's ZenFone Live (L1), OPPO R15, Samsung's Galaxy J4, the iPhone 6S Plus 32G, the iPhone 8 64G, France's Sugar Y12s, the HTC Desire 12 32G, the Galaxy J2 Pro and the ZenFone 5, in that order, according to the sources.

With the launch of Apple's latest models -- the 6.5-inch OLED iPhone XS Max and 5.8-inch OLED iPhone XS -- last Friday in Taiwan, the company is expected to see a boost in smartphone sales in September, the sources said.

Apple is likely to sell 50,000 new iPhones in the first week of sales after the launch in Taiwan, according to the sources.

Apple's 6.1-inch LCD iPhone XR is scheduled to be released in October.

(By Jiang Ming-yan and Frances Huang)
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