HTC to expand reach in Europe and China

Taiwan-based device manufacturer HTC is looking to broaden its reach in both China and Europe with announcements of expansions into both markets. In the case of China, the company has announced its plans to increase the number of retail outlets there from 630 to 2000 by the end of 2011. With a market 10 times bigger than Taiwan’s, where HTC is the dominant player, China could be a lucrative revenue stream for HTC if it can take on Huawei and ZTE, both of which have been paying increasing attention to western markets lately.

According to reports in the Taiwan Economic News, senior HTC executive Fred Liu has said that the device maker’s expansion on the Chinese mainland is not just about retail, but will also involve significant research and development investment. According to Liu, it is anticipated that R&D will expand to four times its current project size in China and will include work on time-division (TDD) flavours of wireless network technologies. HTC recently released its Incredible handset in partnership with China Telecom; TD-SCDMA and WCDMA versions of its Sensation handsets are currently available through China Mobile and China Unicom.

Over in Europe, meanwhile, HTC today opened its new European and UK headquarters in Slough in England. According to a press release issue by the company, its new HQ “symbolises the rapid growth HTC has experienced” in the region in recent times. The device maker’s European operations now cover more than 50 territories; according to HTC, smartphone sales across the EMEA region for Q1 2011 increased 67 per cent on the previous year. The UK HQ building, which was previously occupied by O2, will house senior management, marketing and engineering teams and “provides additional space for nearly 150 new positions to be created over the coming 12 months.”