Not long ago, rumors were flying around that HTC would be seeking a new, cheaper home and selling its current headquarters in the Xindian District of Northern Taiwan. The rumors grew to such prominence after HTC sold a building in Taoyuan to Inventec, to the tune of roughly $184 million, that local publication Next Magazine took up the claims. HTC has officially denied these claims and will not be moving. This was backed up by HTC chairperson Cher Wang, who says that HTC will continue to manufacture smartphones and VR devices out of the Xindian District factory.
Though they didn’t have the best year in 2015, HTC forged on in developing the Vive VR platform hand in hand with video game legends Valve. For HTC, the Vive is set to be their first big product in some time after the chilly reception of the controversial and under-specced HTC One A9, now available in pink, and their previous flawed flagship, the HTC One M9. Rumors and whispers of HTC slowly dying were flying around throughout 2015 and into this year, but the strong showing Vive Pre put on at CES was able to, for the most part, either silence or distract the naysayers. HTC has other products in the pipelines, but the Vive has stolen the show by a huge margin.
After a strong showing at CES following a relatively weak 2015 and a long, slow decline prior, many believe that 2016 will be HTC’s make-or-break zero hour. It’s not hard to see why some may think this, given recent history. With some analysts giving HTC a year to pull ahead of tough competition, especially Samsung and international OEMs like Xiaomi, Bluboo, Oneplus and Lava, projections for HTC’s future at this point are cloudy at best; it’s far too early for most anybody to be able to tell if VR in general and the Vive in particular, will bring on a renaissance for the company, and if future forays into the mobile flagship market will flop or perform forgettably like recent efforts, or if HTC will indeed have the return to form that fans and investors have been waiting for.