It’s public secret that taiwanese behemoth HTC is not doing great for quite some time already, but the recent financial results are putting it even deeper in the ground than expected. The company has recorded fourth straight quarterly significant loss and that’s certainly a ground for major worries.
According to the report released HTC lost roughly 960M yuan ($147 million) in the first three months of 2016 and the revenue tanked to 2.96 billion yuan ($456 million). Compared to last year’s first quarter it means gigantic 64 % drop and the company has amassed total loss of 3.79 billion yuan ($581 million) over the last four quarterlies.
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Facing such staggering numbers the HTC still remains positive and optimistic towards the future, especially concerning the HTC Vive virtual reality system where they even invested $100 million into the content for the VR. They seem to be very happy with their current crop of the phones with HTC One X9, Desire 825/630/530 and the flagship HTC 10, but despite positive reception at MWC and CES i’m fairly sceptical about real sales success. Personally i think only the major breakthrough and success with the VR headset can ressurect the company and bring them back to the land of the living.
“i really did not expected it, htc is better than competitors and has lower prices too” – said No One Ever
The problem for HTC is the price they charge for their devices. The only who will pay $600+ for an HTC 10 is the diehard HTC fans. The average consumer who has no brand loyalty is going to get Samsung, Nexus, LG or Apple ahead of HTC. If they priced their devices similar to Xiaomi or OnePlus they could sell very well.
i agree but i dont think they should be priced at the level of xiaomi or oneplus eventho they are both capable brands. htc has been in it longer and has acquired much r&d expertise in the smartphone industry. they should instead be priced with brands like huawei
But to be priced as such they need a product that will entice people as such. No mediocre mid-ranger tech anywhere.
Back to basics … What made them great at one point? They were really front runners , How to do it? Quit all minor revenue products and focus on the hot flagships with the big profit margins and make those products excel in every aspect possible. (You can’t do that when you got 9 different models and a bunch of other half baked ideas burning cash like crazy, they are not Tesla and people know)
i meant to be compared to prices of huawei flagships rather than xiaomi or oneplus flagships.
anyways, to continue from the previous, nobody would purchase a xiaomi or oneplus flagship at the cost of a samsung flagship because they came into the market with such budget branding in mind. htc in the other hand, has always been premium. i personally think for htc to get back into the game, htc should be more innovative. like when samsung introduced edge display design and now phones are slowly following the trend. it basically became a hit
Huawei phones are priced the same as current HTC phones. The difference is Huawei phones sell, HTC phones do not. Huawei is one of the strongest growing brands in the mobile sector, HTC is one of the weakest.
If some one can tell me how many devices is HTC into this year?
VR is not going to save them soon enough as VR will take at least 2 to 3 years best best best scenario to go global in a way that it would harness a market big enough to make a difference for a big companie. For a small companie into VR excellent they will grow at a pace they can tolerate and feel comfortable. Big companies want instant reward. Not the case here.
I know there’s a crowd out there that loves thin devices. But that’s because they don’t know fully the virtues of not having to hook to the plug twice a day.
That HTC 10 at 4000mha battery and 6gbRam would have given then major foothold against the S7 and the G5 but they were OK with just similar spec’s. It looks great but no. This days you need all bells and whistles but you also ABSOLUTELY NEED differentiation… Keep in mind that APPLE also decreased it’s profit size first time in a long time. Why? Because no real big innovation came into play in the 6s.
In other words: these days where SoCs are faster than what your Facebook needs there are other things that matter. Like being able to gossip for longer on the thing with out having to charge, no matter fast/super/quick charge, and like being able to go back to your 10 other opens apps and find them exactly how you left them, if that’s your choice.
They had a hit with the M8 but didnt evolve enough with the m9. They had a great design asthetic that feels like it has eventually been copied by every man and his dog, and as a result, that once great design language now comes across as cliched, generic and a bit boring.
Need to get back to making a killer flagship with inovative design – AND price themselves back into the current saturared market.