Just another HTC phone

HTC makes incredible smartphones, so it’s a bit worrisome that the company’s revenues are down so much year-over year. The Taiwanese firm announced on Friday that its revenues for the quarter came in at $2.4 billion with net profits at $133 million. That revenue figure is down 48% from the same time period last year, despite an influx of high-end devices including the HTC One X and EVO 4G LTE. From TechnoBuffalo.

I disagree with the above. HTC makes good phones that offer almost zero innovation in comparison to Samsung. That is the main problem- they make phones that sit in the 'just another' category.

Comments

[Joel]

I just went to a HTC One XL (I wanted to try 4g and it's a work phone anyway) from a series of Samsung phones and nothing is changed at HTC.. They make decent phones, it looks good I like the sense stuff and it has plenty of power.. BUT the battery life is a complete joke, I cannot make it through a single day with even moderate use..

To me that is and has ALWAYS been the problem with HTC even from the winmo days, they just can't make phones with decent battery life..

[Gavin]

They have let Samsung steal the limelight.

[Peter M]

The last HTC I owned was a Desire Z. Build quality was great - it felt good in the hand with a heavy metal back and rubberised elements. They put a slightly slower processor in there than it deserved, however (800Mhz when 1Ghz was the new standard).

What can HTC do to turn their fortunes around?

[elbowz]

I have a Note 2 and a One X at the moment and whilst the Note is arguably the most complete and functional smartphone on the market today, the One X is just a competent smartphone. HTC have focused on features where Android was previously weak - Sense gives a set of widgets with a common look and way of working; adds things like text reflow to make browsing work better and extra camera features.

The problem is that their advertising has been rubbish. Its no coincidence that HTC's massive growth tracked the 'HTC You' campaign, which was all about how a HTC phone made your life better. The current campaigns are completely unrelated to anything anyone would do with a phone. A fashion shoot by a student with a stupidly 'hip' name whilst jumping out of an aircraft isn't connecting with any potential customers.

Me-too phones aren't driving sales down 40% per quarter - a complete disconnect with buyers is doing that...

[Paul M]

the OneX is, IMNSHO, a poor relation to the Galaxy S3

The OneS, though, is quite a nice phone, better in nearly every way than the Sensation it replaces, and has plenty of performance despite seemingly being inadequate compared to the Galaxy S3. It deserves more attention, but I think HTC only really tried to promote the OneX.
but doesn't seem to get much attention.

The Sensation did quite well but not as well as the Galaxy S2, with new versions of Android it could really shine, but the original version had a few weaknesses compared to the Sensation XE which is what the original should have been to start with.

My point? HTC seem to cut corners just a little, and rush things out, so people hold back to see what reviewers make of their new models, and this allows their competitors to steal a march.