HTC is on a downward spiral with 68 percent decline in sales

[Greg S]

Recap: HTC once was a highly competitive smartphone maker but has since had trouble making sales. Falling to dangerously low levels of production, the company risks running into further problems as profits fall.

HTC was one of the original smartphone makers leading the charge into 4G LTE adoption and produced a few phones competing for top ratings. All that happened circa 2011 when the HTC Thunderbolt was running Android 2.2 and the iPhone 4S debuted without LTE support, although the HTC Evo was the first 4G smartphone in 2010.

Now, HTC isn't in such a favorable position. Sales are down over 68 percent in June marking the largest decline in over two years. Increased competition from Chinese manufacturers and the struggle to compete with the likes of Samsung and Google is taking a toll. Although Apple was a competitor to HTC several years ago, consumers considering HTC devices probably are not looking too closely at iPhones anymore.

Throughout June, HTC managed only $72 million in sales. According to an analyst from Trendforce, the Taiwanese smartphone maker has had lower sales than expected in the high-end segment and only mediocre sales figures in the middle- and low-end categories due to a lack of improved hardware. Rival Samsung excels in the mid-range and lower cost segments with dozens of different smartphones available worldwide at practically every price point.

Last week, HTC announced layoffs of over 1,500 employees from its manufacturing facilities. This year, total production volume is expected to be less than 2 million units. Considering that rivals sell more than that on a single launch day, times are quite bleak for HTC. Year to date, HTC stock prices have plummeted nearly 30 percent.

Although it is possible to operate as a small niche smartphone maker, there are many challenges to doing so. Mainly, low volume production costs become a problem. For HTC, there will be many downsizing pains for the foreseeable future.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/75387-htc-downward-spiral-68-percent-decline-sales.html

 

[Jeff Re]

That's what happens when you have atrocious customer service and refuse to send out warranty replacements.

 

[Fearghast]

This is hardly surprising to anyone.
Htc is been great for one thing and one thing only - Vive.
Their phones ended "interesting and really good era" with HTC M9.

 

[MilwaukeeMike]

That's what happens when you have atrocious customer service and refuse to send out warranty replacements.

I've owned a couple HTC phones, and I thought their service was fine. I got a replacement easily - even when my problem was minor.

The real problem is the world doesn't need so many Android phone makers. Samsung has gotten huge, LG and Motorola are still hanging around, and now there are new players like Google and Huawei and ZTE. How do you stand out?

HTC used to be the choice if you wanted a premium metal beautiful phone... the HTC M7 One was tops when it came out - a way better choice than the Samsung S2 or S3 or whatever plastic touch-wizzy bloatware device they had that year. But Samsung learned - and started making nicer phones. HTC lost it's niche - even though the M8 was a beautiful phone.

I owned 2 HTC phones before going to LG, and now Google... I'm sure HTC still makes great phones, but it's just so hard to stand out in the crowded market... and they don't have other lines of business (do they?) like every other Android maker to fall back on.

 

[Vulcanproject]

The M8 was great.

The U12 is poo, shelve.

 

[m-tec]

Arrogance from these companies is the problem.

Years ago Canon sent out a request to photographers (pro's and amateurs alike) to list what they want from a camera, the result was the 7D and it was an instant hit.
People want a viewfinder in compact cameras, Panasonic have them and no one else bothers (well 1 sony model!). The result: Panasonic sell loads of compacts.

Give people what they want, is it that difficult?

 

[Jeff Re]

I've owned a couple HTC phones, and I thought their service was fine. I got a replacement easily - even when my problem was minor.

You are luckier than I. I had an M8, the battery lasted about a year and took a couple other components with it. They said they'd replace it and then they refused to respond to me after that. Good riddance to HTC. Any company that acts like that deserves to go under.

 

[MilwaukeeMike]

Arrogance from these companies is the problem.

Years ago Canon sent out a request to photographers (pro's and amateurs alike) to list what they want from a camera, the result was the 7D and it was an instant hit.
People want a viewfinder in compact cameras, Panasonic have them and no one else bothers (well 1 sony model!). The result: Panasonic sell loads of compacts.

Give people what they want, is it that difficult?

Yes, it is. If you can figure that out - you're a genius. Even when you ask people what they want and then make it, there's no guarantee they'll buy it. That's the hard part... many people don't even know what they want...
Henry Ford summed it up with this ... "If I had asked people what they want, they would have said a faster horse."

These companies aren't arrogant - they're all racing to stay relevant.

 

[NightAntilli]

As someone with an HTC 10, I think their phones are underrated. They simply don't have mind share, and despite them wanting wide adoption, their phones really are only attractive to a small demographic. And they killed being useful to that small demographic when they removed the headphone jack.

 

[Jeff Schmidt]

HTC phones have been boring for years. They've been using the same design for what 5 years or so. Nothing exciting. The software and build quality was what people would get when you got an htc device. And in both areas they did small changes since the M7. They used to have different designs for each carrier that were very nice looking. Sprint had some cool designed phones for exclusives.

Software has gotten worse over times for them. They lied years ago and said they would have software updates shortly after launch. I think that lasted a couple months and software lagged behind the competition.

 

[hahahanoobs]

HTC is still in the phone business?! I had no idea. After the second gen HTC One and that horrible Evo 3D phone, I lost complete interest in the company.

This video was pretty frickin hilarious though:

 

[gcarter]

I agree with some of the sentiment here... HTC originally caught my eye, because again they brought out phones like the HTC Desire & Desire HD (had both myself)

I remember the jealous glances in the office when I pulled out the Desire HD and equally the Gold ONE M7
They just oozed quality build!

I also liked their custom HTC sense skin overlays, especially the HTC animated clock widget, which I still use albeit via a third party app

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.droid27.sensev2flipclockweather

Perhaps they should do what Nokia did and re-release the classics with beefier hardware

 

[poohbear]

That's what happens when you have atrocious customer service and refuse to send out warranty replacements.

I've owned a couple HTC phones, and I thought their service was fine. I got a replacement easily - even when my problem was minor.

The real problem is the world doesn't need so many Android phone makers. Samsung has gotten huge, LG and Motorola are still hanging around, and now there are new players like Google and Huawei and ZTE. How do you stand out?

HTC used to be the choice if you wanted a premium metal beautiful phone... the HTC M7 One was tops when it came out - a way better choice than the Samsung S2 or S3 or whatever plastic touch-wizzy bloatware device they had that year. But Samsung learned - and started making nicer phones. HTC lost it's niche - even though the M8 was a beautiful phone.

I owned 2 HTC phones before going to LG, and now Google... I'm sure HTC still makes great phones, but it's just so hard to stand out in the crowded market... and they don't have other lines of business (do they?) like every other Android maker to fall back on.

That's what happens when you have atrocious customer service and refuse to send out warranty replacements.

I've owned a couple HTC phones, and I thought their service was fine. I got a replacement easily - even when my problem was minor.

The real problem is the world doesn't need so many Android phone makers. Samsung has gotten huge, LG and Motorola are still hanging around, and now there are new players like Google and Huawei and ZTE. How do you stand out?

HTC used to be the choice if you wanted a premium metal beautiful phone... the HTC M7 One was tops when it came out - a way better choice than the Samsung S2 or S3 or whatever plastic touch-wizzy bloatware device they had that year. But Samsung learned - and started making nicer phones. HTC lost it's niche - even though the M8 was a beautiful phone.

I owned 2 HTC phones before going to LG, and now Google... I'm sure HTC still makes great phones, but it's just so hard to stand out in the crowded market... and they don't have other lines of business (do they?) like every other Android maker to fall back on.

Agree 100% . The market has saturated, and the Chinese smartphone makers are taking over.

 

[orondf]

As someone with an HTC 10, I think their phones are underrated. They simply don't have mind share, and despite them wanting wide adoption, their phones really are only attractive to a small demographic. And they killed being useful to that small demographic when they removed the headphone jack.

I also own an HTC 10, completely agree. In my opinion the 10 is better that the Samsung Galaxy S7, but reviewers (even on Techspot) gave it a hard time.
In addition to removing the headphone jack, they also made the back out of glass on the U series that followed. Both are dealbreakers for me...

 

[Inclement]

The quality of their hardware's excellent but it seems like they've been pricing themselves out of the market. Their latest U12 costs almost as much as an iPhone X, but there's no guarantee you'll get updates beyond the first year or what kind of support you can expect if you need a replacement.

The accessories for the HTC Vive all seem to cost way more than they should. I mean, seriously, €120 for a an improved head strap with "okay" headphones? Or €44,99 for some new cables? Understand it's a niche product, but you have to wonder if they'd be selling more of these if they didn't price gouge.