Wednesday
Oct102012
Who is killing HTC?
Wednesday, October 10, 2012 at 2:30AM There needs to be a third player. And its not Samsung / Apple causing HTC the most problems in my opinion, it's all the others (LG, Sony, etc), who are taking a very small share of the market, but mostly taking those who would otherwise buy HTC. Peter C.
I think Peter is right and that the potential market looking forward for HTC is limited. There are, however, opportunities which could be as diverse as BlackBerry and Windows Phone, but the company needs to move quick. A 79% profit slide is not good.
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Reader Comments (8)
There was a time HTC competed pretty well against Samsung and the others, but it lost its way.
Now it says the right things but does the wrong things. I think the bosses are convinced they know what their customers want and so don't bother trying to find out. Then they realise that customers didn't actually want what they made, they wring their hands, say all the right things and continue doing the wrong things.
The One-X tried to be like an iPhone. People who want a phone like an iPhone buy an iPhone. It's the same problem Windows Phone has; it's too similar to iOS (in terms of restrictions, functionality, focus).
Samsung produced an out-and-out no apologies Android phone, and surprise surprise Android users wanted it. Except for the hardcore users like my gf who want the Note II ;o)
I think HTC will continue to decline (unless they hire me as CEO of course) and LG will step up to become Samsung's main competitor. They've produced some excellent phones recently, and the new Optimus G is far more powerful than even the S3 and Note II. They need to learn from Samsung though; Samsung markets functionality and usability rather than power. LG needs that same focus.
Sony hasn't a clue and will exit the phone market before long. Have you seen that James Bond phone? Seriously? Bond would have an S3 or a Note 2!
No he wouldn't have an iPhone; the API's too restrictive for Q to add any cool stuff ;op
I think it is Samsung killing HTC, everyone at work who previously had HTC phones (many of us in IT) all use Samsung (or Galaxy nexus which is really samsung) phones now... not one HTC phone left in the department..
As MGM has struck a $5m sponsorship deal with Sony, we can definitively say that James Bond uses a flagship Xperia as his phone of choice.
HTC have delivered some average phones, a tablet of dubious merit and poor advertising. As a result they've gone from leading the pack to dropping away quickly.
The One X is a great phone, the S3 is a better one, that's been advertised well and as a result HTC are struggling. It's not been helped by failing to deliver their commitment to a less complicated range.
Their only way out looks to be jumping on the WP bandwagon and beating out Nokia. A tall order...
@ Blugblatter - I think you a generally incorrect about some of the things you are saying in the post.
HTC is its own worst enemy. I don't know who they use for their surveys to determine new phone specs and it isn't the general customer because their surverys come back with complete rubbish as to what is and isn't important. Hence the trash they currently push out. The last survey I had from them put Batteries as least, yes least important part of the phone - and that is with eveyone complaining about the lack of power......
They do and have made some great phones, and I do think they will continue to get better, especially as they have reduced their model range.
Sony will not go out the market, in fact they could take over from HTC and if they would just stick their neck out and put out properly specd phones they will do excellently especially as they have serious commitment to upgrading their phones promptly and as many as possible. Saying that their under specd phones generally compete very favourably with much higher specd phones probably due to apps not yet being properly written for the higher specs.
HTC has lost momentum and was ran over by Samsung and now LG is also catching up real fast. LG just needs to invest more in marketing, other than that, their devices are superb.
HTC need to conquer people back and the only way is to build some very capable devices in the future and tell the world about it.
@Jaam so you're saying they're not asking their customers what they want. Isn't that what I said? It sounds as though they're asking someone though, which I wasn't aware of. Unfortunately not asking and asking the wrong people can lead to the same result.
The thing that kills their phones for many users (and not just power users) is the non-replaceable battery and no expandable storage. Plus they charge a lot if you want more internal storage, which makes, say, a 64GB One-X way more expensive than an 80GB (16+64) S3. Apple does the same thing but Apple can get away with it.
Yes Sony could overtake HTC if it does the right things. HTC could regain its position if it does the right things. They're both unlikely to do so.
I think LG's a better bet for doing the right things, and also they have access to some amazing cutting-edge tech from within their own group (just like Samsung).
Sony commitment to updates???
They commited to ICS for the xperia play long ago, then months down the track they changed their mind and cancelled the update, now Jellybean isn't so new anymore (for google anyway)...
The manufacturer situation is hopeless, if HTC could actually be faster with updates (reduce their range to do it) then they would have a huge selling point as, other than nexus devices, they are all completely hopeless when it comes to updates..