New Delhi: Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC is planning to enter the low cost smartphone space. Currently the cheapest smartphone that it sells is HTC Explorer, which is retailing at Rs 9,000 in India.
According to China Times, the Taiwanese smartphone maker has already signed a memorandum of cooperation with ST-Ericsson to co-develop the chip that will power these phones that will be launched by next year. However, neither of the two companies have confirmed the move.
While there are no details available about the proposed smartphones, HTC has been apparently unhappy with Qualcomm which supplies most of chipsets to the company right now.
Samsung and Apple are two other handset vendors who have their own set of chipset designs, but the major difference here is that while Apple and Samsung use the chips to power their flagship models, HTC will do that for its entry level phones.
HTC currently makes smartphones based on Windows Phone 7 and Android platforms. However, it has said time and again that it remains open to operating systems and will choose the one that is in demand.
HTC has been suffering from loss of market share and has been posting poor results but in the current quarter, it is likely to post a 55 per cent jump in profits, on account of good sales of HTC One series phones.[MR1]
The company recently bought Dr Dre's Beats Audio, a specialist in the field of audio enhancement and high end headphones, which is expected to raise the demand for its phones too.
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