Anyone who follows Android news regularly can tell you about the rise and fall of HTC. Once among the most popular smartphone manufacturers in the world, HTC has fallen on hard times lately. The company tried to regain some attention last year with the release of a new HTC One, but that didn’t exactly pan out as planned. Now the company is looking ahead to what it plans to do this year, with Chairman Cher Wang telling Bloomberg that HTC plans to release its first wearable in time for 2014’s holiday shopping season. The wearables craze seems to be in full swing at the moment, so if HTC can enter the market with a bang later this year, it could play a role in reversing the company’s fortunes. Wang says HTC has been working on wearables for a number of years, but had to sort out problems with components before it could bring anything to market. “Many years ago we started looking at smartwatches and wearables, but we believe that we really have to solve the battery problems and the LCD light problems,” Wang said, calling these issues “consumer-centric problems.”
But, should everything go as planned, HTC could be entering the wearables game before the year is out. Along with plans to focus on marketing, this makes HTC “confident and optimistic” about its chances in 2014, according to CFO Chang Chialin. HTC views a solid marketing strategy as key as we begin to sink our teeth into 2014, and there’s good reason to do so. Last year, the new HTC One enjoyed a significant amount of critical success, but despite that, the handset never really took off with consumers. With that in mind, it’s clear something needs to change, because ultimately it doesn’t matter what kind of reviews your phones pull in when no one is buying them. Neither Chialin nor Wang got into the nitty-gritty when it came to HTC’s plans for a marketing overhaul, so we’ll just have to wait and see how the company attempts to pull in consumers throughout the year. Hopefully HTC can start getting the sales it needs to stay afloat, because lately we’ve been seeing it release some really solid smartphones. Stay tuned.Fixed