HTC to open 24-hour online store

Taipei, Jan. 28 (CNA) Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC Corp. (宏達電) announced Wednesday that it will open a 24-hour online store in its home market next month to cater to the country's mobile shopping trend.

Starting at 10 p.m. on Feb. 4, the HTC Desire 816G and the Desire 526G, two mid-range phones equipped with an octa-core processor and a dual-SIM card slot, will be available in the HTC eStore, the company said in a statement.

HTC North Asia President Jack Tong (董俊良) said in late December that the company would begin sales of some lower-priced smartphones via e-commerce platforms in 2015 to take on fast-growing Chinese competitors like Xiaomi Corp., which has adopted an online-only sales strategy.

Sales on e-commerce platforms, however, will make up less than 10 percent of HTC's total revenue in Taiwan, given the company's solid partnership with telecom operators and retailers, according to Tong.

Other Android phone makers that have been making a foray into e-commerce include Japan's Sony Mobile, which said online sales accounted for nearly 20 percent of its total revenue in Taiwan at the end of 2014 compared with about 10 percent earlier in the year.

In October 2014, Samsung Electronics Co. launched two new 4G smartphones with the Taiwan unit of Web portal Yahoo Inc., in a departure from its usual approach of releasing its new phones through local telecom operators.

But Andy Tu (杜偉昱), general manager of Samsung Taiwan's mobile communication team, said Wednesday that the company will still rely heavily on telecom and retail distribution networks, which account for 80-90 percent of its local sales.

(By Jeffrey Wu)ENDITEM /pc