HTC ups Touch Diamond shipments by 50%
updated 02:45 pm EDT, Thu May 22, 2008
HTC To Ship 3m Diamonds
HTC is boosting its shipments for the Touch Diamond based on a sharp spike in the likely demand for the device, company chief Peter Chou has said at a Tokyo conference. The Taiwan-area phone creator now plans to increase shipments of the Windows Mobile phone from its earlier two million-unit forecast to about three million, or a full 50 percent higher than before. Where it took the original Touch 11 months to reach three million, the Diamond should only take the 7 months of June through December to reach that goal, according to Chou.
The HTC leader doesn't explain why he believes the goal possible, though the Diamond is known to have a wider release schedule that will start with Europe in June but quickly spread to other areas, including the US by the second half of this year. Upgrades to the Diamond also increase the accessibility of the device, as 3G support enables the new Touch to work in Japan, Korea, and other areas where the 2G-only GSM original is incompatible.
Most other handset designers typically don't release shipment forecasts for individual models, though Apple has publicly stated since 2007 that it expects to deliver 10 million iPhones in 2008. The American company reports shipping 1.7 million iPhones in the first three months of the year and is widely predicted to cross the three million mark by the end of June.
