Taiwanese technology companies have raised their earnings forecast and telecom operators have set their iPhone sales targets high as the island posts its best opening sales for the handset.
Customers lined up for hours on Friday, the launch day of iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus in Taiwan. Even price hikes and heavy rain were not enough to dampen the enthusiasm. The island's largest telecom operator Chunghwa Telecom Co. said it sold as many as 20,000 new iPhones on the launch day, while Taiwan Mobile Co. also expects total sales of 20,000 sets over the weekend.
Jeff Ku, Taiwan Mobile chief business officer, said the company was expecting 100,000 new iPhones to be sold in the first month, compared with less than 80,000 sets during the first month of sales of the previous model. President of Chunghwa Telecom's mobile business group Lin Kuo-feng said the daily sales could be maintained between 10,000 to 20,000 sets, twice as many as the iPhone 6 last year.
Chunghwa Telecom chairman Rick Tsai said the company had posted its best quarterly profits in four years, a more than 20 percent surge year-on-year, and should surpass its annual target this year. "Strong iPhone sales can boost our 4G subscribers by at least 20 percent by the year end, when we will hopefully have 1.8 million 4G subscribers," said Cliff Lai, president of Taiwan Star Telecom Corp.
Apple product assembler Foxconn registered the best monthly revenue in September due to surging shipments of new iPhone. The company is expecting an even better performance in the fourth quarter as the handsets are released in more countries and regions.
The stock price of Taiwan-based UniMicron, another of Apple's suppliers, climbed to its highest point in four seasons thanks to robust distribution of the new iPhone. The company posted a record monthly revenue increase of 18.6 percent in September.
An estimated 300,000 sets of new iPhones are expected to be sold within the first month of its launch, about 50 percent increase compared with last year when the iPhone 6 debuted in Taiwan, local media reported.
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