HTC Blames 2012's Lack of Success on Marketing
Firm experienced 79 percent decrease in profits during third quarter.
Smartphone manufacturer HTC has blamed 2012's lackluster performance in the smartphone market on a lack of marketing. Speaking to The Wall Street Journal, HTC CEO Peter Chou said he believes the "worst for HTC has probably passed."
"Our competitors were too strong and very resourceful, pouring in lots of money into marketing," he said, referring to the company's struggle to succeed in the smartphone market last year. "We haven't done enough on the marketing front."
Although HTC experienced a solid 2011, sales and market share failed to reflect the same success the following year. Back in October of 2012, the company announced a 79 percent decrease in profits since 2011.
The Taiwanese firm, which lately promised better smartphones due to its licensing agreement deal with Apple, reported its lowest quarterly net profit figures since 2006. It made $133 million during 2012's third quarter; comparatively, it made $633 million during the same period in 2011.
HTC is currently said to be working on its high-end, quad-core M7 smartphone, which is set for a CES reveal this week. The firm is also rumored to be preparing two Windows RT tablets, including the first 7-inch tablet powered by Microsoft's OS.
FU HTC.
But they didn't build on that. Yeah, it was poor marketing with mediocre products that hurt them.
Add to that getting rid of the damn Sense overlay. Its bloated, buggy, and laggy; and the reason I wont buy another one of their phones (previous owner of 3 HTC android phones).
Honestly I do not care that much about that. What kills them for me is a unchangeable *small* battery.
If you make the battery unchangeable at least put a decently sized one in and do not go with a moronic "customers want thin phones rather than longer lasting ones" sales pitch.
That is when I said Hello to my GS3...... end of story. It is little things like that which android power users want and why take them away?
Whom ever made that choice at HTC needs a demotion.
Im sick of hearing this hypocritical crap.......
when apple does this: "omg they are such a closed platform"
when google does it with the nexus 4: "oh its alright, its such a cool phone, i don't need that stuff anyways"
when htc does it: well, just look at the stupid stuff said in the quote... not the first time i see this too...
You should be pissed off at verizon... It is almost always the carrier's fault when there are update delays. Also i'm sure they said it was slow with 4.0 because of all the crap verizon added to the software after htc gave it in for customization.
Have you heard of any other phone other than the iphone or the s3 in the outside world? I doubt it.. With all the publicity Apple vs Samsung is getting + all the money samsung put into the S3 with the olympics and their features (exclusives), there is no doubt in my mind that not many people hear of the choices HTC offers.
Lastly, I just would like to say that I own none of phone brands mentioned above, but know people with at least one of each of them (S2, S3, I4, I5, OneV & OneS). HTC has solid phones. The One S and One V I have tried have very solid builds. They feel of quality when being held. As for the software, my friend upgraded his One S with CM10 and is in
and is in <3 with it now. Given, the original software included may not be great, but the hardware is.
Summary: What HTC said is correct. Samsung put a ton of money into their S3 marketing (as seen on TV and Olympics and youtube ads every 2 seconds). It really was because of the lack of marketing
Yes, because you really need the hardware of the 4S to be able to do turn-by-turn navigation which android phones have since..what? 2 years?
Apple does not exclude functionalities because of hardware issues, but because they want to motivate users to buy a newer device.
Mind, Apple has despite that still a vastly superior update policy than any Android OEMs. The one for Googles Nexus devices is better though, my Nexus S got updates with all functions longer than the iPhone 3G or 4.
I'm not bothered by Sense because I root all my android phones, but the Rezound will be my last HTC phone if they stick with integrated batteries and no expandable memory. I always get extended batteries for using my phone as a hotspot.
It's not hypocritical, I don't buy Apple or Google phones for the same reasons.
Then its just stupid. Explain sales of those phones then
It was a half-a$$ attempt. I loved my thunderbolt a lot, then I actually used it...
Apple's iPhone at retail is also nearly double the price then the Nexus phone.
The Nexus phone is dirt cheap for the hardware specs, so of course it's not going to have everything in it.
HTC has no excuse as their phones retail price is still higher then the Nexus 4's by a few 100 dollars.
It's not hypocritical if the situations are completely different, fool.