HTC Likely to Outsource Production of Smartphones

Taipei, Jan. 25, 2011 (CENS)--While actively expanding its capacity, the Taiwan-based High Tech Computer Corp (HTC)., a globally leading vendor of smartphones, has also been planning to outsource production to meet explosively increasing demand for the products worldwide, confirmed Peter Chou, CEO of the firm.

At present, HTC has stepped up its output expansion at its factories in Taiwan and mainland China. Chou indicated that monthly output of the firm's Shanghai plant will be doubled to 2 million units, and a new office building at its plant in Taiwan's northern county of Taoyuan has also been constructed.

In fact, aware that even its expanded output will probably fail to meet fast increasing orders for smartphones, HTC has been alleged to outsource production since the end of 2010, with a couple of top-notch EMS (electronic manufacturing service) firms, including Pegatron Corp., Wistron Corp., Foxconn Technology Co., Ltd. and Flextronics International Ltd., on the firm's supplier candidate list.

Chou said that his firm has been considering farming out part of production to contract manufacturers for maximum operation efficiency, but hasn't either made clear how the firm and its partners will cooperate with each other, or set a timetable for the plan so far.

With the growth led by its hot-selling Desire HD phones, the firm has estimated its smartphone shipment at 8.5 million smartphones and sales revenue at NT$94 billion for the first quarter of this year, markedly up 157% and 147%, respectively, from a year earlier, with the gross profit rate to reach the level of 29-30% and quarterly EPS (earnings per share) to amount to NT$15-16.