HTC is losing ground fast and chances that the new HTC One M9 will help them gain any ground back does not look good. Putting in new CEO Cher Wang, Co-founder of HTC in 1997 with Peter Chou, may help a little – HTC’s stock gained 2.5 points and 1.77-percent as of this afternoon – but it could also be too little, too late. Since April 2011, when HTC was flying high, they have lost an incredible 88-percent of their value. And in a world where the new HTC One M9 must do battle with the likes of the new Samsung Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge and the new LG G Flex 2 and LG G4, it is just another example of HTC throwing water on an oil fire to put it out.
The rise of Samsung certainly had a lot to do with it, but HTC’s premium image was also threatened from Apple. With Samsung and Apple battling HTC from the high-end and new China startups, like Xiaomi, taking away their low-end market, HTC did not react fast enough to plug their holes. Back in Q4 of 2013, HTC had about a 3-percent smartphone market share, Samsung had 30-percent and Apple had about 15-percent, but today, HTC is down to about 2-percent. Wang said in a statement, “We are seeing rapid changes in the industry, with the smartphone as our personal hub connecting us to a growing world of smart devices. We pioneered the smartphone industry; now we are applying that thinking to realize the potential of a new generation of connected products and services.”
HTC is definitely reaching out with a few new products that feature camera abilities, such as the HTC Desire EYE, a GoPro like camera with their RE Camera as well as Grip, a new fitness band and the HTC Vive, a VR system powered by SteamVR. We love HTC products and we hope that Ms. Wang can make a real impact on the remaining part of 2015 and on HTC’s 2016 flagship device. The removed CEO Peter Chou is moving to headset design and adding innovation to the HTC line-up. Ms. Wang said that they were exploring “a new generation of connected products and services,” so quite possibly they will head in a totally new direction that could mean away from the smartphone…let’s hope not.