Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC will release phones with screens larger than 5 inches, and develop more budget-friendly handsets for the Chinese market, its CFO said Monday.
"We will not limit ourselves to below 5 [inches]," said HTC CFO Chialin Chang during a conference call Monday. "We will have a more exciting product line up in the coming months. You will see."
Late last year, the company began selling its first 5-inch 1080p high-definition smartphones, the HTC Butterfly and Droid DNA.
Rivals are already selling and bigger screen phones, also known as "phablets," a contraction of phone and tablet. The most well known are Samsung's Galaxy Note handsets, the latest of which has a 5.5-inch screen. In January, Chinese vendor Huawei unveiled a device with a 6.1-inch screen, the Ascend Mate.
Demand for phones with 5-inch or larger screens will more than double this year, with shipments projected to reach 60 million units, according to research firm IHS iSuppli.
Financially, HTC has been struggling with profitability, due to the intense competition from the likes of Apple and Samsung. For this year's first quarter, HTC projects its revenue will range between NT$50 billion (US$1.7 billion) and NT$60 billion, which could result in a slight dip in sales from the previous quarter.
The company, however, is hoping to change its fortunes with the launch of its next handsets, with rumors online pointing to the unveiling of a new flagship smartphone in February.
"We certainly hope the announcement and the launch of the 'hero' products will carry the new product line," Chang said.
The Taiwanese vendor is also expanding in mainland China, now the world's largest market for smartphones. Although HTC wants to be known as a premium brand, the company plans to release more handsets at the lower end in the Chinese market, priced between 1000 yuan ($318) and 2000 when bought without a contract.
"We are going to go down, but we won't go below 1000 yuan," he said. "We still believe there is room to play from 1000 to 2000."
Comments
Tzu Xi said: Yes yes was disappointed with the 47 inch display HTC One Still waiting for bigger display - 55 inch would be greatHTC has one feature which no other brands has and that has kept me waiting for their phones with larger than the current HTC Ones 47 inch display They are the only phones which auto aligns web browsers to fit the screen It is very convenient to have auto fit to screen size feature when the font is enlarged Even with the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 101 when one increases the font it goes past the screen size To read you would have to scroll to the right scroll back to the left scroll down terribly annoying amp inconvenient