Taiwan smartphone maker HTC Corp. aims to boost its market share in Europe, Middle East and Africa, or EMEA, region by 50% this year despite tough competition from competing handset manufacturers, a senior company executive said Wednesday.
"In the EMEA region overall, we are above 10% [market share] and we are aiming to get to 15% by the end of this year," Florian Seiche (photo), HTC's president for EMEA, said in an interview in Dubai. Seiche said in 2009, HTC's market share across EMEA was below 6%.
HTC also aims to double its market share in the Gulf Cooperation Council, or GCC, states from about 4% to 5% at present, Seiche said. The six-member GCC comprises Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman and Kuwait.
Seiche said that key priorities this year for the EMEA region include: operator agreements that will enable more accessible data tariffs for consumers and a strong investment in retail.
Seiche added that HTC is currently in talks with regional operators such as Saudi Telecom Company, or STC, and U.A.E.-based Etisalat and Du about offering consumers' local data tariffs at the "right price."
"It is important that we work with operators to offer data tariffs at the right price. This is key for consumers, as is offering choice. Ultimately though it is the operator's decision - we are working with them as handset partners to encourage them to offer as much choice as possible for our customers," said Seiche.
Seiche said that competition in the region from other smart phones such as the blackberry and Apple's Iphone could be eased by "retail preference."
"Our focus for this region is to work with retail partners to have the best experience. If we do a good job in the retail place then we can reach more consumers," said Sieche.
"To really focus on retail.. get the retail and sales people excited, then showing and let consumer experience our our HTC experience. Especially with the facebook phone," he added.
HTC is a smart phone manufacturer that was established in 1997. The company is listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
