iPhone, Thailand:, DTAC, Aims, Outsell, True

Thai operator DTAC has doubled its sales iPhone sales target after enjoying a success first weekend selling the device according to Reuters.

[D]TAC now expects to sell 190,000 iPhones in the year after launch, up from its earlier forecast of 100,000, Chief Operating Officer Thana Thienachariya told Reuters on Monday.

Hitting this revised would see the company outsell rival True, originally the exclusive iPhone operator in Thailand, who is predicting total iPhone sales of 120,000 this year – having sold 100,000 iPhones in 2009.

With further operator deals likely in the coming future, the iPhone may well find a new growth spurt in Bangkok where the BlackBerry is quickly becoming the phone du jour.

The Reuters piece includes noteworthy details on 3G and the growing number of smartphones in Thailand.

Operators are banking on the launch of smartphones such as iPhone and Research In Motion’s BlackBerry to boost revenue from non-voice services as clients go online and download music or other data via mobile phones.

With repeated delays in the auction of licences for third-generation (3G) mobile services in Thailand, operators are focusing on boosting mobile data as revenue from voice services should be flat.

Smartphone penetration in Thailand is expected to reach 12.9 percent of mobile subscribers by 2015 from about 10.5 percent at the end of 2009, Credit Suisse said in a note.

As the statistics show, smartphone usage in Thailand remains a niche as blogged here.