Taiwan’s HTC thrown in towel in Korea phone market

Taiwanese handset maker HTC is set to pull out of Korea following fruitless attempts to stay afloat in a market dominated by the world’s top smartphone maker Samsung Electronics, market watchers said yesterday.

On Friday, HTC officially announced its plan to close its Seoul office after sluggish sales.

“Today’s decision to close our office in Korea is a decisive action by HTC to streamline and optimize our organization and improve efficiencies after several years of aggressive growth,” the Taoyuan, Taiwan-based company said in a Friday statement.

A company spokeswoman in Seoul said HTC will strive to ensure its mobile phone users are not adversely affected.

Market watchers attributed the exit to homegrown players Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics and Patench, who are cementing their market dominance with smartphones that run on the long-term evolution network.

HTC, which last released a new model in the local market in late last year, holds less than 1 percent of the market share here, according to industry data.