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Timzer

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Nov 10, 2011
334
0
HTC was king of the Android world, but my oh my how things have changed. They've got great looking phones with specs to match but for some reason an overwhelming majority have chosen Samsung and it's GS3 or Note 2. Where do you think HTC went wrong?
 

zbarvian

macrumors 68010
Jul 23, 2011
2,004
2
I've wondered this myself. They are my favorite Android manufacturer by a wide margin, but I think they've stumbled a bit when it comes to branding and marketing. They haven't really had great marketing campaigns, or marketing at all really, and they have too many devices. The S3 is on every carrier here in the US, while the One X is only on AT&T. Sprint got an EVO LTE, which has a different design and at a glance is a different phone. They need to only have one flagship and be stricter with the carriers, as well as run better marketing campaigns.
 

einmusiker

macrumors 68040
Apr 26, 2010
3,001
355
Location: Location: Location:
Im still rocking my thunderbolt. Only phone that can lock you into 4g lte mode great for tethering. I wont last much longer though i am looking at doing the phablet thing and getting a tab 2 with data and using talkatone/google voice for calls
 

2298754

Cancelled
Jun 21, 2010
4,890
941
Too slow. Company isn't moving fast enough and they're not pushing product nearly as quick as Samsung.

and marketing. Sammy is killing everyone with their marketing these days.
 

bmt134

macrumors 6502
Dec 6, 2012
378
4
Too many "flagship" devices. Which makes it hard to advertise a particular device when you have multiple flagships at one time and another flagship coming soon.

With Samsung they have one main flagship: The S3. And they have you let know that fact too with their multitude of advertisements.
 

2298754

Cancelled
Jun 21, 2010
4,890
941
Too many "flagship" devices. Which makes it hard to advertise a particular device when you have multiple flagships at one time and another flagship coming soon.

And this year's flagship was a pretty crappy one.

No removable battery, poor battery life, no expandable memory, and HTC Sense sucks.

Only thing good about the One X is its fantastic screen.
 

aneftp

macrumors 601
Jul 28, 2007
4,374
570
Apple has about 70% of the mobile phone profit.

Don't let the "Apple and Samsung own 90% of the mobile market fool you"

Samsung only owns 20% of the profit and could easily fall down to HTCs level quickly.

The mobile market is changing quickly. Nokia and RIM were 1 and 2 in smartphones in many countries until probably late 2010.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:World-Wide-Smartphone-Market-Share.png

Look how quickly things have changed in the past 2 years.

The public is fickle. I don't notice much difference between HTC and Samsung phones. Except Samsung is a much larger company with much more resources at hand.
 

KnightMan

macrumors member
Sep 12, 2012
60
0
I think it's a combination of brand recognition from Samsung's Galaxy S line, after consistently upgrading it from GS1, GS2, GS3...etc. You get brand recognition from consistency like this. But then Samsung upped it even more with the GS3 by keeping it the same on all US carriers. The next step for them would be to make it one world phone. Then the other part is HTC just falling flat with phones that have small batteries and a launcher that started getting more bloated as the years version went by. Granted they have thinned out sense this year but a little too late. The other thing Samsung has over any other manufacturer is parts control. They make all the most important parts of the phone themselves. They don't have to rely on anyone else for their CPU (except in the US GS3), display, and RAM. It's all theirs. I honestly think this is why their devices seem a little snappier and less buggy than all the other Android guys.
I think with the GS4, Samsung is gonna really up the game. You can bet all the other manufacturers (especially Apple) are keen to see what the Android Giant is gonna introduce next.
 

Dr McKay

macrumors 68040
Aug 11, 2010
3,531
260
Kirkland
They move too fast, they release new phones too often, they said they were going to do one a year with the X series, but then they make more and more quickly after, sinking back into old ways.
 

Axious

macrumors member
Nov 1, 2012
39
0
Somewhere in the world
I really like HTC. Their phones design are like lamborghini or any sports car
They should learn from Samsung success and add bigger battery, sd card slot, update Sense UI and also updates that dont require half a year to arrive
 

einmusiker

macrumors 68040
Apr 26, 2010
3,001
355
Location: Location: Location:
Apple has about 70% of the mobile phone profit.

Don't let the "Apple and Samsung own 90% of the mobile market fool you"

Samsung only owns 20% of the profit and could easily fall down to HTCs level quickly.

The mobile market is changing quickly. Nokia and RIM were 1 and 2 in smartphones in many countries until probably late 2010.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:World-Wide-Smartphone-Market-Share.png

Look how quickly things have changed in the past 2 years.

The public is fickle. I don't notice much difference between HTC and Samsung phones. Except Samsung is a much larger company with much more resources at hand.

And thats actually a very BIG difference. Sammy isnt going anywhere they are a HUGE company
 

onthecouchagain

macrumors 604
Mar 29, 2011
7,382
2
Cause they refuse to put their power/wake buttons on the side despite their devices getting larger. In fact, they decided to make it even harder to reach on the HTC DNA by not just putting it on top... but center top!

That's the reason. 100%.

:D

(Seriously, it's stupid).
 

bembol

macrumors 65816
Jul 29, 2006
1,077
64
I love hTc for the Build, Feel & Overall Quality.

I don't get it why give us a Apple like device not giving us a Removable & Long Lasting Battery and Memory Expansion? I also think Sense just fell short, they should've just went stock android.

It's amazing what Samsung did with the Note 2's Battery Life. I love the DNA, if the battery life alone matched it I would've bought instead of another Note 2.
 

Technarchy

macrumors 604
May 21, 2012
6,753
4,927
HTC lost its way after the Evo.

It was such a hit that they basically stuck to that design too long, and they got stale, and Sense got progressively more bloated, and buggy from the end of 2010 till the One X in early 2012.

Plus they were first to go mainstream with LTE and Wimax and their battery life was horrid with those crappy old power hungry chips.
 

pickaxe

macrumors 6502a
Nov 29, 2012
760
284
HTC has had lots of problems since they struck big with the Nexus One. After a while they just came back to bite them in ass:

1) Rehashing designs (check out how many times they reused the HD2 or T-Mobile G2 designs)
2) Constantly cutting corners when it comes to phone components: cheap speakers, batteries with inadequately-low capacities etc.
3) Too many product releases. These people release more phone variations than Samsung. They only came to their senses when they started releasing the One series, but it's a little late now.
4) Dropping support for phones too quickly and not following through after promising an update (go ask a Desire HD owner what they thing of HTC's promises).
5) Not being Samsung, aka not having access to components on the cheap.
 

Beeplance

macrumors 68000
Jul 29, 2012
1,564
500
I tot Nokia did comparatively poorer than HTC in the past years? Their market share have dwindled immensely..
 

JoeG4

macrumors 68030
Jan 11, 2002
2,873
539
Short version:
Because HTC never updates their damn phones. Phone X is launched, and if a new version of Android comes out either a month before, or a month after.. it MIIIIIIGHT get it. Might. Anything more? forget about it. Yes, they are built nicely, but they never support their damn hardware.

Long version:
* Phone X comes out in November.
* Google releases a new version of Android in January.
* HTC announces new phones in between November and January, including a new flagship. Phone X is discontinued.
* Meanwhile, rumors surface and beta firmware floats around for Phone X on the latest version of Android
* HTC releases a list of phones to receive the latest version of Android. Of course, Phone X is not on the list.
* After much persistence, both HTC and the mobile carriers insist that Phone X is being worked on, but they have no information for you right now.
* Phone Z comes out, with lower specs than Phone X, but runs the latest version of Android.
* Over a year later, HTC finally announces that they worked long and hard on Phone X, but it just doesn't have enough (ram/storage/memory/aluminum trim), therefore "it's not feasible to have an acceptable experience for the Phone X on the latest version of Android"
 

matttye

macrumors 601
Mar 25, 2009
4,957
32
Lincoln, England
Their phones are too samey. Prior to the one X coming out all of their phones had like a small handful of features added and were then released and marketed as new phones, but they were hardly different.

And HTC always releases software that freezes, lags or just goes crazy sometimes. Used a HTC desire and a HTC sensation XL that both had major stability issues.
 

ChrisTX

macrumors 68030
Dec 30, 2009
2,686
54
Texas
Too slow. Company isn't moving fast enough and they're not pushing product nearly as quick as Samsung.
Actually you are incorrect here. That was the point with their One line of phones. Prior to the One S/V/X/X+/etc...They pushed too many phones, and now they were trying to streamline things. However as an iPhone fanboy that has now switched to Android, there were a few things that got me to the S3, over the One X. Reports of bad battery life, paltry 16gb of onboard storage(on the AT&T version) with no expandable memory, and the obnoxious looking camera hump on the back. Otherwise the design was great, screen was second to none, and the subsidized price was normal for a high end smartphone. I ALMOST pulled the trigger on the One X(It released in May, and my contract had been up since Feb), but I knew I had to wait for the S3 release on AT&T in June. HTC tends to rely too much on form vs. function which in the end will hurt them. My biggest complaint with Android OEMS, and this might be all on the carriers, is that most high end phones release with only 16gb of onboard storage, when the iPhone releases with 32gb, and 64gb. If HTC adopts a larger battery, and expandable memory, I might buy their next flagship.
 

maflynn

macrumors Haswell
May 3, 2009
73,682
43,740
HTC was the first out of the gate with some really nice designs, but they reacted too slow to Samsung entering the android market. Perhaps its due to resources but Samsung has really been producing some great designs while HTC seems all but silent. If they're going to be counted as a major player they need to come out with some great phones
 
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