Not long after the HTC One was launched we found out that HTC was having some pretty significant supply issues, mainly because of the new camera module for the “UltraPixel” camera. It was a camera that nobody else really tried to make in the smartphone industry, so of course there wasn’t going to be a lot of supply for it, as their suppliers had to make it from scratch. If you want to see what all the fuss is about, why not check out our review here.
This created a double problem for HTC. Not only did it hinder the supply for the existing demand, but it also restricted HTC from advertising the HTC One as much as they could. Poor advertising of its devices combined with a myriad of different new brands has been one of HTC’s biggest problem over the past few years. So just when they were starting to put things together and unify the marketing budget under one brand and phone model, they couldn’t properly advertise it because they had all these supply issues.
But all of that seems to have been fixed now, and HTC promises to double the shipments of HTC One units as soon as this month. HTC says it has strong demand for the HTC One, but I imagine they are going to spend a lot more on advertising in the next few months, because it’s the company’s main phone until next year. They have to sell as many as possible, and not be overshadowed by the Galaxy S4 or the next iPhone or any other flagship device launching this year.
I still believe HTC would be smart to make a Nexus phone this year, because that would probably help them a lot more with their image and even their sales, just like it did LG. LG was barely in the minds of people anymore after releasing buggy phone after buggy phone and having a poor upgrade cycle, but once they released the Nexus 4, the tech media and a lot more people started taking them seriously again.
This has helped them, whether directly (Nexus 4 sales) or indirectly (“higher quality” quality image and word of mouth) to rise to the #3 spot in smartphones right now. HTC could really use a sales and image boost like that, too, right now. And I can’t think of anything else that could help them achieve that just as fast. A Nexus phone would be HTC’s “magic bullet” to regain the loyalty and trust of Android smartphone users.
[Via Engadget]