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HTC 277 days ago | | 6 Comments

HTC – Will they sink or swim?

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Losing investors, stock drops, and subsequent pleas to the public have left investors feeling weary about HTC. They have not quite regained consciousness in the phone market. The Taiwanese manufacturer has been showing more and more signs of downfall, with little downplay of their struggles. For HTC, it seems as though their doors are slowly closing – but does an open admission of areas of improvement mean that they will be able to regain their former glory?

Whilst HTC may be (albeit slowly) experiencing growth each quarter, it feels as though their growth has been somewhat stunted. In an uncovered memo from CEO Peter Chou, there is reason to believe that HTC have experienced such a sharp decline due to their extremely rapid growth in the last two years. But now, HTC have dropped to being the number 8 mobile phone maker in quarter 2 – far superseded by the likes of Samsung, Nokia, LG and Apple.

Amongst all this commotion, it has been discovered the overall GDP of Taiwan is quite reliant on HTC. As such, Taiwan’s central bank last week urged the Government to give HTC a helping hand. Whilst this is unconfirmed, it has been cited that there are already discussions taking place for the Taiwanese Government to help HTC to their former glory.

Economic analysts, Goldman Sachs, believe that there is room for improvement for HTC, but recognise there needs to be “significant executive determination to do a big-scale overhaul”. So what does this mean? As it seems, a market-leading phone in terms of specs is not enough. Does the senior management of HTC need to change, or is it the very basis of HTC that needs an overhaul, HTC’s own Sense UI? In the loosely defined words of Chou, the company will need to improve its product, quality and brand awareness.

To me, this all points to signs of a struggling company. But as always, there are many rumours floating around – some of which point to HTC being the manufacturer of choice for Google’s Nexus phone.

So, which direction would you like to see HTC take? Will they sink or swim?

Written by : Josh is a dedicated student and an Android-lover. At the dawn of his (brief) telecommunications career, Josh fell in love with all-things-Android - especially Android apps. In his spare time, Josh would be found consuming copious amounts of caffeine.
  • Tyler Saddington

    They will swim IF they get Jelly Bean out to their devices soon… And I mean soon. Otherwise they will become Sony or LG with their updates :(

  • gurgle

    Remember earlier this year when HTC made a big deal out of how they were gonna focus on the One series and not pump out a new flagship phone every few months? And then subsequently capitulated to American carriers and went ahead and delivered the One XL, the Evo 4G LTE, the Droid Incredible LTE? (ugh GOD i do i hate those names…) Samsung, on the other hand, didn’t make a song and dance about pushing one phone this year, they just WENT AND DID IT. Seriously, Samsung’s success in getting the same device released worldwide with identical form factor and name, and then advertising the shit out of it, is very is in my opinion one of the big reasons why HTC is struggling right now, and Samsung is killing it. Many consider the One X to be one of the best Android phones around right now, but for some reason HTC just can’t get people to buy it, let alone talk about it.

    • Cam Charles

      except thats not really true samsung have released way more then one phone and the s3 has been released in a few forms, the canadian version is alot different to other for instance and if you count the nexus theres even more, but you are right HTC are lacking any advertising punch, i know all about the oneX but im a nerd its my job lol if i asked average joe what a htc oneX was they probably ask me wat HTC was before even getting to the oneX bit

      • gurgle

        Nope.

        Sure, Samsung have released quite a few phones this year but none of them compare to the GSIII it in terms of specs and ALL their promotional work has been focused on it the GSIII. The Galaxy Nexus doesn’t count because it came out way before the SIII. Yes there are a few small internal differences between the worldwide variant, the 3 north american variants and the Korean one too, but the important thing is they are all called the Samsung Galaxy SIII, and all look identical. This makes Samsung’s worldwide marketing (hello Olympics major sponsor) SO much more effective.

  • http://twitter.com/darkhorse166 darkhorse166

    Here’s the deal – HTC make good phones, phones that don’t have huge bugs, or feel flimsy, or any other dealbreakers (which is more than can be said about other manufacturers, e.g. LG). I strongly believe the issue is almost purely about marketing, and marketing in this new age of social media and the power of word-of-mouth. When friends are asking their group’s ‘techie’ whether they should get “an iPhone or Galaxy”, HTC has already lost the battle of mindshare.

    HTC needs to rethink its marketing strategy; research its target market, figure out who are the key promoters, not necessarily always tech journalists, but maybe mums, dads, outgoing uni students, etc., whoever effectively spreads the mindshare of the brand and the devices.

  • Cam Charles

    HTC practically came out of nowhere when android hit, like really someone name a device/product of theres before android, i think with an agressive marketing campaign alah the diamond they can get back into the right place, every man (well woman) and his dog new about the diamond if htc got that kind of boom for any of the one series they would nab some customers for quite a while