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So, is the HTC One saving the CEO's job?
- Thread starter jimbo1mcm
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Not very well.
The CEO may still step down, they're not exactly meeting expectations right now.
Compare HTC's ~2 million Ones sold to Samsung's ~20 million S4's sold. They may be saying bad things about Samsung as well, but those are simply about it not growing as fast as they thought it would, they're still pushing a lot of units, growing their business, and making a nice profit. HTC is much the opposite.
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I'm not exactly sure what his definition of successful is, but a month ago he said: "I'm not going anywhere."
Not sure where that 2 million figure came from
Here
So based on that and adding 600-700,000 for July, that would put at close to 7 million units, not two.
http://www.gsmarena.com/some_analysts_expect_htc_one_sales_to_slump_by_40_in_q3-news-6427.php
Here
So based on that and adding 600-700,000 for July, that would put at close to 7 million units, not two.
http://www.gsmarena.com/some_analysts_expect_htc_one_sales_to_slump_by_40_in_q3-news-6427.php
My bad, I found it hard to find actual sales figures.
Still, 7 million is a lot less than 20 million.
True, but they're also a lot smaller then Samsung. I'm not making excuses for them but if they can continue produce some great phones like the HTC One, then things will be looking up.
What I found dismaying is that they will be stopping updates for the HTC One S. Moves like that only anger customers and drive them away. I'm not trying to derail the thread but rather point out that selling phones is only part of the equation. Supporting them is the other. If they provide great support on a great design they will sell them. I think with the HTC One they have a great design
According to posts on HTC Elevate, it appears the One S has got a reprieve and will recieve Sense 5 and 4.2.2 (but that will be it from then on)...
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Yep a lot smaller..... If anything as I already covered its the fact the high end smartphone market has reached a plateau. Phones are more powerful, last longer and folks are tied to increasingly long contracts. Soon phones will be available on 36 month contracts, meaning that in the last few years we ave gone from a pool of folks looking to upgrade their phone each year - to now only upgrading every 2 or 3 years in the future. Therefore the pool of people to actually buy / upgrade to a new flagship each year is actually truncating rather than getting bigger. With a smaller audience each year - sales can not continue to grow in these markets...
This is why all the companies, and Apple included are now going to be focussing on mid range phones in emerging markets. That is the only area where there will be foreseeable growth going forward.
So expect ALL phone manufacturers to not report as amazing flagship sales as previously expected, it all just common sense when you factor in what I have covered, sadly it appears analysts - especially stock market ones - always seem to ignore common sense in these reports.
This has always been my concern with the android platform. Each manufacturer dictates how long they'll support a given phone and since they roll out new phones much faster then apple does, they seem to drop support sooner then perhaps they should.
For this reason if I were to get a new android the Nexus phone would be on my short list just because google provides the updates directly and they seem to have a better track record of supporting the phone longer.
As for HTC at one point they were fairly open to modders/hackers rooting the phone and having an atmosphere of being friendly to hobbyists. I think if they cultivate that and make the phones easier to root that can only help them imo
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Its not just the high end phones that have reached saturation levels (here in the US) - Its new customers. This is witnessed by the carriers changing how they attract customers, with T-Mo no contracts and upgrade every 2 years and both ATT and VZW following suit with their own flavors.
HTC (like Samsung and Apple) cannot rely on a single phone to make them profitable any longer, but unlike Samsung and Apple they need to attract customers in different ways. The HTC One is but one piece of that puzzle, they cannot go head to head with Samsung and expect the same Samsung numbers - its just not going to happen.
Taking some pages out of how apple cultivated their customer base will be more helpful and I think with the HTC One they did that with a great design
Here's my take on HTC:
HTC's update department is an utter failure, full of unkept promises and empty hopes. I'm still waiting for 4.2 on the Dev Edition while Android is moving onto 4.3 (speaking of which, imagine when we'll get that update?). There are some real reasons why 4.2 needs to come. It's not just lock screen widgets, but also the hideous and obnoxious on-screen menu bar, and the un-expandable notifications with one finger (sucks you have to use two fingers to expand notifications. Even Google figured out that was a mistake when they first released that). August is approaching in a few days -- where is the long promised -- by HTC themselves -- 4.2 update that was supposed to come promptly after the HTC One release?
They also need to get their head out of their derriers with the Ultrapixel camera. It's more hype than it's worth and is, at the end of the day, a poor camera. There's just no two ways about this. You're sacrificing so much just for mildly better low light pictures.
For their 2014 model, they also need to wake the heck up and put the Home button in the center of the device like everyone else in the world is doing. I've gotten used to the lay out because I simply have no choice, but imagine how much better and how much more sense it would make if the "HTC" button was the home button. Symbolic, too: HTC is home. I can't stress what a silly move this was especially when you consider they must've thought about it; then decided, "nah, let's put it to the right and just make the HTC center do absolutely nothing."
In my eyes, HTC has had mild success with the One, but I see it more of an "averted disaster" type of success. I could be wrong, of course, depending on the actual numbers and whatnot. And I have to admit, ultimately, this is a great phone with a number of things done right (design, battery life, dual speakers, screen quality).
But HTC could be so much more.
If the Moto X is all it's hyped up to be, I could see myself giving up the One for it. I'm already considering it.
HTC's update department is an utter failure, full of unkept promises and empty hopes. I'm still waiting for 4.2 on the Dev Edition while Android is moving onto 4.3 (speaking of which, imagine when we'll get that update?). There are some real reasons why 4.2 needs to come. It's not just lock screen widgets, but also the hideous and obnoxious on-screen menu bar, and the un-expandable notifications with one finger (sucks you have to use two fingers to expand notifications. Even Google figured out that was a mistake when they first released that). August is approaching in a few days -- where is the long promised -- by HTC themselves -- 4.2 update that was supposed to come promptly after the HTC One release?
They also need to get their head out of their derriers with the Ultrapixel camera. It's more hype than it's worth and is, at the end of the day, a poor camera. There's just no two ways about this. You're sacrificing so much just for mildly better low light pictures.
For their 2014 model, they also need to wake the heck up and put the Home button in the center of the device like everyone else in the world is doing. I've gotten used to the lay out because I simply have no choice, but imagine how much better and how much more sense it would make if the "HTC" button was the home button. Symbolic, too: HTC is home. I can't stress what a silly move this was especially when you consider they must've thought about it; then decided, "nah, let's put it to the right and just make the HTC center do absolutely nothing."
In my eyes, HTC has had mild success with the One, but I see it more of an "averted disaster" type of success. I could be wrong, of course, depending on the actual numbers and whatnot. And I have to admit, ultimately, this is a great phone with a number of things done right (design, battery life, dual speakers, screen quality).
But HTC could be so much more.
If the Moto X is all it's hyped up to be, I could see myself giving up the One for it. I'm already considering it.
Meh I don't think he will be leaving any time soon. The One was a pretty good success considering what HTC was doing before I personally love my HTC One and preferred it over the galaxy s4. I think HTC just needs to get marketing into high gear and start bombarding with ads so the name HTC will be recognized more and hopefully we will have a fully armed third contender to the apple and Samsung wars.