New HTC phone good enough to replace iPhone

[Vega.]

New HTC phone good enough to replace iPhone: HTC chairwoman

2015/10/19 20:36:30

CNA file photo

Taipei, Oct. 19 (CNA) The chairwoman of Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC Corp. (宏達電) said in a letter to employees Monday that the company's upcoming new handset will be a good alternative to Apple Inc.'s iPhones.

Cher Wang (王雪紅) said there will be great excitement for HTC this week, because the company is going to launch an amazing new smartphone that will make HTC employees proud.

The new phone will "strike a balance between beauty, performance and simplicity," making it good enough to become an alternative to the iPhone, Wang said.

She also encouraged HTC employees to invite their friends and clients to watch the online launch of HTC's new smartphone, in an attempt to promote HTC products more boldly than in the past.

HTC is scheduled to hold an online press event the following day in which the manufacturer is expected to unveil a metal-cased mid-range handset called the One A9, running on Google Inc.'s new Android 6.0 Marshmallow operating system.

The Taoyuan-based company's revenue in the July-September quarter was NT$21.40 billion (US$654.8 million), in line with its previous estimates, while its operating losses declined to NT$4.94 billion from NT$5.1 billion in the second quarter.

HTC shares surged 8.29 percent to close at a four-month high of NT$81.0 Monday in Taipei trading. The stock hit bottom at NT$40.35 on Aug. 24, when it announced a US$60 million share buy-back.

(By Esme Jiang and Jeffrey Wu)