Taipei, March 11, 2010 (CENS)--Not to be outdone by Chunghwa Telecom Co., Ltd., both Taiwan Mobile Corp. and Far EasTone Telecom Co., Ltd. yesterday announced they will also introduce subsidization program for iPhones tomorrow (Mar.12), intensifying the competition in the Taiwan iPhone market.

Industry watchers estimate Taiwan`s top three telecom carriers together to sell as many as 400,000 iPhones a year on subsidization programs, which are projected to cost the three firms NT$4 billion (US$124 million at US$1:NT$32) in subsidization expense a year based on NT$10,000 (US$312.5) they pledge to subsidize each phone.

Currently, Chunghwa has nine million subscribers while Taiwan Mobile and Far EasTone each have around six million.

Chunghwa has offered the Apple phone for a year, already selling around 200,000 units of the phones. It has projected to sell another 200,000 iPhones this year. The other two rivals plan to each sell 300,000 phones in three years.

Taiwan Mobile said around 10,000 consumers had pre-paid at its stores for the phones while Far EasTone said 18,000 consumers had pre-paid at its stores for the phones.

Chunghwa`s executives pointed out that bandwidth reliability and service satisfaction will be the key to winning telecom market and the company will likely introduce the fourth generation of iPhone this summer.

Far EasTone will offer WiFly and WiFi broadband wireless connections on iPhones while Taiwan Mobile will add number portable (NP) to its iPhone services to lure new subscribers.

Taiwan Mobile plans to buy 250,000 smartphones including iPhones this year, accounting for 18% of the total number of various phones the company will buy this year. Last year, smart phones represented only half the percentage.

Far EasTone said smartphones constituted 20% of its total procurement volume last year.

(by Ken Liu)