HTC might be considered to be a smartphone manufacturer in distress, but the business does more than sell smartphones. HTC has seen success with its virtual reality brand, Vive – the recently opened Ghost Train ride at British Thorpe Park uses the HTC Vive virtual reality headset to wow and scare riders. In the smartphone arena, HTC’s flagship device for 2016, the HTC 10, is considered to be one of the finest smartphones available this year but is positioned in a very competitive market, facing the Samsung Galaxy S7 and (perhaps of more relevance) Samsung’s mighty marketing budget. We’ve also seen how HTC is preparing the HTC Desire 10, which looks similar to a cut down variant of the HTC 10.
Last week, struggling smartphone and virtual reality manufacturer, HTC, announced that their former Chief Executive Officer, Peter Chou, is leaving the business. This week the company has announced a number of changes for the European business, chiefly the departure of Peter Frolund, the former executive in charge of the UK operations is moving across to head HTC’s Vive brand with responsibilities for European sales. Peter had headed up the UK HTC operation since 2013. He will be replaced by Greig Williams, who is also taking on the role of European sales Vice President. Greig is a former Microsoft Mobile Vice President. Greig has twelve years of experience obtained at Nokia across Europe before being transferred across to Microsoft Mobile. HTC’s press release explained that they were pleased that Greig would be joining the business as his considerable experience should be beneficial to the business.
Greig appears to have his hands full as he joins HTC. Whilst the company has seen some success with the HTC Vive headset and has one of the better 2016 flagship devices so far, the business is facing a difficult headwind. HTC’s products are often considered too expensive to be considered competitive. HTC’s Sense software works well on Android devices, but HTC has in the past explained that rolling out monthly software updates was unrealistic and even went to the lengths of removing the date of the software version from its devices. However, whilst the devices are not perfect they are certainly compelling: it would be good to see what fresh blood at HTC’s European operations can do.