The vendor has not finalised the list of countries in North Africa where it would like to establish local presence, but has been monitoring the smartphone market in Tunisia, Morocco, Libya and Algeria. The vendor already has representation in the Egyptian market.
Mohamed Kais Zribi, regional manager at HTC MENA, says part of the expansion plan is to ensure that the coverage of the MENA region has in-country offices that provide support for the customers and the channel.
Zribi says the company’s extension of its Middle East will also see it turn attention to the Levant region as acceptance of the HTC brand and products has continued to grow in that market.
He adds that HTC has started this process of building in-country presence because it would like to grow market share in the smartphone sector in those countries. “As we expand our smartphone portfolio in the region, we would also like to extend our footprint through channel partners in the MENA and Levant region,” he says. “The expansion of HTC’s operations to focus on in country support is in line with the company’s broader EMEA objective to grow its market share in the smartphone.”
The in-country focus and support will also help in raising brand awareness, assist HTC to better support the channel, work closely with service providers in those countries and engage more with customers at the lower to mid-tier bracket of the smartphone market, Zribi remarks.
Zribi points out that it’s widely predicted that by 2013, 50% of the total global phone market will comprise smartphones. “We would like to grow our own share in the segment,” he says.
He explains that although the company has not decided on the countries where it will establish its offices in the North Africa and Levant, the process is not far away from being finalised. “At the moment we are unclear about which countries will lead the way in our expansion strategy,” he says.
Zribi points out that in addition to establishing market presence in North Africa, HTC will also be establishing presence in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and later in the year in Jordan or Lebanon.
In another development, HTC has unveiled the latest models of its Desire series smartphones in Middle East.
The new HTC Desire HD and Desire Z offer more engaging interfaces and enhanced HD-quality display and features HTCSense.com, a series of new connected HTC services.
Zribi says that customers have been eagerly awaiting the launch of these new models following the huge success of HTC Desire. “I am sure that they will be fully satisfied with the new features and applications that we have introduced in the HD and Z model, especially in view of the new models’ more engaging, intuitive, user-friendly design,” he says. “We have likewise retained the attention-grabbing features of the phones taking advantage of the powerful Android platform and the latest version of HTC Sense, which has become a major hit among smartphone users."
"We hope that the Desire HD and Desire Z will grab an even greater number of loyal customers on account of the growing popularity and importance of smartphones in the Middle East region," Zribi concludes.
Plans by HTC Corporation to expand its coverage of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region have reached advanced stages with the smartphone maker readying the opening of local presence in some countries in North Africa. Up until now, the vendor has been addressing the MENA region from its Dubai head office.
