HTC J One phone making sales comeback in Japan
2013/08/25 14:26:25
Taipei, Aug. 25 (CNA) Taiwan-based HTC Corp. is seeing a rebound in sales for its Japanese version of the HTC One flagship phone amid steep competition from other Android-phones makers and Apple Inc., according to sales rankings released by BCN Inc.
BCN, a Tokyo-based research firm that tracks retail sales of consumer items in Japan, ranked the HTC J One in 15th place in the Aug. 12-18 week, up from 22nd the previous week, the company said in its survey made public on Aug. 21.
In terms of BCN's monthly sales rankings, the HTC J One had dropped to 29th in July from 18th in June, since the HTC J One became available to Japanese consumers on June 1.
The HTC J One has similar specifications to the HTC One -- a 4.7-inch full-HD display, a 1.7-gigahertz quad-core chipset, a 32-gigabyte built-in memory, but packs a micro-SD card slot for extra storage and super-fast 4G LTE connectivity.
But HTC remains lagging far behind other Android-phone makers, as Sony Corp.'s water-proof Xperia A remained the best-selling phone in the Aug. 12-18 week, while Samsung Electronics Co.'s flagship Galaxy S4 was ranked in fourth place.
The 16GB model of Apple's iPhone 5 sold via au, the mobile unit of Japanese carrier KDDI Corp., ranked second in the weekly survey, followed by the 16GB iPhone 5 sold via Softbank Corp. in third place and the 32GB iPhone 5 sold via Softbank in fifth.
HTC began offering its HTC J One handset with a red case in Japan on Saturday, hoping to repeat the success of its red HTC J Butterfly flagship model.
Jack Tong, president of HTC's China operations, who also serves as the company's North Asia president, said HTC has successfully expanded its brand awareness in Japan over the past year.
Citing internal HTC data, Tong said the company's brand awareness in Japan had risen from only 4 percent in December 2012 to 50 percent in June this year when the HTC J One hit Japanese store shelves.
However, HTC One shipments are expected to fall by as much as 40 percent in the third quarter of 2013 because of maturing demand in the high-end market, according to a forecast by Macquarie Securities of Australia.
(By Jeffrey Wu)
