Apple tops Taiwan's smartphone sales in January

Taipei, Feb. 22 (CNA) Apple Inc. was the top smartphone vendor in Taiwan in terms of both sales volume and value for the fifth consecutive month in January, industry sources said Wednesday.

Apple was the top smartphone vendor by volume during the month, capturing 23.6 percent share of the 692,000 units sold in Taiwan in January, down from a 24.3 percent share in December, the sources said.

The lower market share reflected a slight decline in buying interest in the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, which hit Taiwan's market in September, the industry insiders said.

Coming in second was South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co., which accounted for 20.9 percent of January sales by volume.

It was followed by Taiwan-based PC vendor Asustek Computer Inc. (15 percent), Japan's Sony Corp. (9.8 percent) and Taiwanese smartphone brand HTC Corp. (9.1 percent), the sources said.

In terms of smartphone sales value in Taiwan, Apple took a 57.7 percent share of the total in January, dwarfing the second largest vendor Samsung (11.6 percent), the sources said.

Sony was third with an 8.8 percent share, followed by Asustek with 6.8 percent and China's OPPO Mobile Telecommunications Corp. with 5.6 percent, the sources said.

It was the first time the Chinese brand ranked among the top five smartphone vendors in sales value in Taiwan, squeezing out Taiwan's HTC.

OPPO made it into the top five with its popular R9s phones, while HTC unveiled its latest flagship models -- the bigger HTC U Ultra and the smaller HTC U Play -- in January and it was expected to see stronger sales in February, the sources said.

In terms of individual smartphone sales, Apple's 5.5-inch iPhone 7 Plus 128 GB, unveiled in September 2016, continued to top the unit sales rankings in Taiwan in January, followed by the 4.7-inch iPhone 7 128GB, the sources said.

Coming in third was Samsung's Galaxy J7 (2016), followed by OPPO's R9s, Asustek's ZenFone 3 ZE552KL, Sony's flagship Xperia XZ, Samsung's Galaxy J2 Prime, Galaxy J7 Prime, Asustek's ZenFone 3 ZE520KL and ZenFone 2 laser ZE550KL.

(By Esme Jiang and Elaine Hou)ENDITEM/ls