HTC dropped to the fifth position in the Taiwanese phone market, falling behind Chinese original equipment manufacturer (OEM) OPPO, DigiTimes reported on Tuesday. The Taoyuan City, Taiwan-based smartphone maker was outpaced by OPPO largely due to the launch of the OPPO R11, a selfie-focused handset which was the best-selling Android device in Taiwan last month, according to sources from retail channels in the Far Eastern country. The big three in the Taiwanese smartphone market remains unchanged, with this segment still being led by Samsung Electronics, Apple, and ASUS.
HTC’ consolidated financial report for the second quarter of the year showed that its U11 flagship helped the company’s struggling smartphone unit to improve its commercial performance to a certain degree, with the device leading it to $228.48 million in revenue in June alone and being directly responsible for HTC’s most successful month in 2017 so far, though the interest in the high-end handset seemingly dropped off last month and resulted in a 10 percent revenue decline compared to June and a drop of two percentage points year-on-year. Earlier this year, the company revamped its corporate structure and general marketing strategy in an effort to improve its performance in the smartphone market, though the quickly declining momentum of the HTC U11 and the upcoming releases of a number of flagship products from other manufacturers don’t bode well for its near-term success in this segment, according to latest reports. The U11 was released two months ago and the Taiwanese consumer electronics manufacturer is unlikely to introduce another high-end device for the time being, making its current prospects even more troubling if it’s unable to re-spark consumer interest in its latest product.
HTC’s recent troubles have reportedly pushed the company to start considering some radical measures to revitalize its operations, with the tech giant currently being in the process of considering the sale of its Vive virtual reality (VR) unit, industry insiders said earlier this month. While the firm’s top management is reportedly also weighing the possibility of selling the entire company, HTC’s diversified business portfolio makes that scenario unlikely, according to previous reports. The company is also said to be manufacturing the upcoming Pixel 2 for Google, that device is still expected to be a relatively niche product that won’t significantly affect HTC’s bottom line.