HTC has had financial issues basically ever since 2011. Before then they were on the very top as far as finances go, however since then it’s been a struggle. HTC turned first profit in Q2 this year, that was their first profitable quarter ever since Q2 2013. HTC One (M8) is the main reason why they managed to do that, without that phone Q2 would be a huge fail yet again. It seems Q3 isn’t looking very good for HTC, on the contrary, they’re expecting a rather weak sales.
HTC’s CFO Chialin Chang said that they don’t expect for HTC One (M8) to sell as well as it did thus far considering it has been a while since its launch. This actually makes sense considering other big players are about to take the stage rather soon. In the coming months we’re expecting Samsung Galaxy Note 4 phablet, Samsung’s premium Galaxy Alpha smartphone and Apple’s iPhone to arrive and probably steal the thunder from HTC’s flagship. Mr. Chialin said that HTC will have to “trim sales and marketing expenses” in order to avoid further losses. He also added: “Some of our products, after the initial excitement, have settled at a lower level. But the good thing is it is stabilized,” Chialin Chang claimed. “For HTC, to start gaining market share is important. We have gone through a transition period in 2013.”
This Taiwanese manufacturer just can’t catch a break. That’s too bad, considering HTC really does make great devices and it would be only fair if they managed to fight through this and join the most profitable smartphone players out there. Hopefully, they’ll manage to do that in the future. It seems HTC is on the right path, at least in my honest opinion. They make great hardware and have joined the fight in low-mid range devices market as well. All they have to do now is invest more in marketing and I believe they’ll manage to climb the ladder.
Do you own an HTC device? What are your thoughts about all this, what would you change in HTC’s business plan in order to help the company?