HTC's first tablet PC to go on sale in Taiwan soon - Focus Taiwan News Channel

Taipei, May 10 (CNA) HTC Corp., the world's No. 5 smartphone maker, announced Tuesday that its first tablet computer will hit select stores in Taiwan later this month, as part of its efforts to boost sales in the Asia-Pacific region.

Following the April launch in Malaysia, the 7-inch HTC Flyer will be sold in Taiwan through Chunghwa Telecom Co., Taiwan Mobile Co. and Far EasTone Telecommunications Co., the company said.

HTC said it is also set to launch a cloud-based service on the device in June that will provide 500 to 600 downloadable streaming films for paid subscribers in the country.

Dealers said worldwide sales of the HTC Flyer will be around 2 million units this year, which will help to generate revenue of NT$3 billion (US$105 million) for the Taoyuan-based manufacturer.

Meanwhile, the company expects strong growth in its second-quarter sales in the region, said HTC Asia-Pacific Vice President Jack Tong at the launch of the HTC Flyer in Taipei.

"We will see strong growth from the first quarter, which will be driven by our deepening relationships with telecom carriers and a lineup of new products in the second quarter that will be more than the number in the same period of last year," Tong said.

HTC expects to launch a total of seven products in the region from April to June, he said.

HTC unveiled 10 smartphones in the first half of 2010, including its best-selling HTC Desire that exceeded sales of 1 million units globally for the whole of last year.

According to the research firm Canalys, Asia Pacific became the largest smartphone market region in the first quarter, with 37 percent of worldwide shipments and year-on-year growth of 98 percent to 37.3 million units, putting it ahead of Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) for the first time since the third quarter of 2007.

Nokia, Apple, RIM, Samsung and HTC were the top five global smartphone vendors, with HTC growing by over 200 percent in the United States during the January-March period to become the leading Android vendor and the second-place smartphone vendor in the country, Canalys said. (By Jeffrey Wu) ENDITEM /pc