back to article HTC execs: Oh dear, did we say we'd sell lots of smartphones? Our bad

The bottom appears to have dropped out of HTC smartphone sales, leaving the Taiwanese firm forced to revise its second-quarter earnings guidance downward by nearly 30 per cent. Just over a month ago, HTC said it expected to see revenue of between NT$46bn and NT$51bn New Taiwanese dollars ($1.49bn to $1.66bn in US dollars) in …

  1. Peter Johnston 1

    Very simple reason here. After the internal schism caused by being radical with the One, which led to the departure of much of the top team, they opted to be too conservative this time round - a quick refresh and a phone which looks much the same while the others moved on. So HTC was still considered on the reputation of the One, but didn't win the choice war.

    It shows that not innovating can be just as risky as being too cutting edge.

    1. Mark 110

      I agree though not sure its entirely an innovation problem. I have an M8. A few friends have one too. It does what I want it too. I am not sure what the M9 could have done to be an upgrade. Certainly there isn't a competing offering inspiring an upgrade either.

      A lot of people I know upgraded last year and all are waiting til at least next year for their next upgrade (barring loss, or damage). All the HTC owners are planning to stick with HTC when the upgrade comes around.

      Apple meanwhile are flying just on the back of making the phone bigger and their ecosystem lock in and brand loyalty. (I did manage to extract my girlfriend from the Apple Lockin a few weeks ago by getting her a second hand M8 off eBay for £200 - shes never been happier).

      Samsung have made a leap in construction quality which is probably driving their loyal customers upgrades.

      ==

      I guess I think the M8 was just so good there's nothing to drive upgrades and the other manufacturers have caught up. Be interesting to see what the landscape looks like next spring when its upgrade time. If someone comes out with a platform I can EASILY dock and use as an office PC then that might tempt me. I can't think of another killer innovation I would switch manufacturer for.

      1. Martin Summers

        Innovation is going to be difficult though as what more can they really do. I think one thing they could at least make an attempt on which would win me back as a customer is making their phones more robust, perhaps water and dust proofing wouldn't go amiss. Let's face it, battery life is probably the only final useful frontier.

        1. The last doughnut

          If its water and dust proofing you want and better battery life, you should have bought the Sony Xperia.

      2. Doogs

        Yep, I'd've definitely bought an M8/9, but my 3 year old One X is still going strong and shows no sign of giving up the ghost any time soon. Excellent phone, best I ever had.

  2. Martin Summers

    If it wasn't for their slightly dodgy build quality i.e. the paint so readily coming off only a few months into owning it (my Sensation and M7), or dodgy camera components causing purple images which happened to me with my M7, then I might well have had a HTC again. Their software is excellent, I am missing HTC sense a lot now I'm having the pure Android experience with my Nexus 6. I considered everything but though when it came to choosing a phone as I didn't want it to look like I'd had it for a few years bashing it about rather than a few months.

    1. Mark 110

      One thing the M8 did do was address those build issues. Mines a year old and looks brand new. The case is a little scuffed as I dropped it stood on it and slipped the first week I got it. Heart stopped as I expected I had killed it but its like new.

      I assume the M9 is the same.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    All the traditional Android OEMs are or will be hurting

    They can't compete with the pricing or inbuilt language/nationalistic advantages of Chinese and Indian firms that are gaining share rapidly in those hot markets.

    I doubt it is problems selling their flagships, but that market is saturated so they're pretty only stealing share from each other. With reduced volume from the lower/mid range products they have fewer units to spread their costs around and profitability inevitably suffers. Not that any of them were making much of anything selling Android phones, aside from Samsung.

  4. Fihart

    HTC One now a lovely phone - but seems expensive for a relatively obscure brand. Wonder too if some bitten by M7's unresolved camera bug (in low light everything goes purple on my mate's) have deserted. HTC budget Desire looks nice but doesn't review enthusiastically.

    Confirms theory (expressed a year ago ?) that "landfill Android" would reduce even quality smartphones to a commodity. Only vast marketing budget (and dealer sweeteners ?) are keeping Samsung and Apple in the game.

    1. VulcanV5

      Relatively unknown brand . . .

      If HTC is nowadays "a relatively unknown brand" explanation for that can only reside in the fact that too many don't want to know it. Including me. I've struggled on for long enough with a crap HTC Desire HD and am just about to take enormous delight in smashing it to bits with a hammer. Its replacement? A new Samsung Galaxy S4 for fifty quid from Tesco and some ClubCard confetti. Chucking wagonloads of cash into new model smartphones when old model smarties are only marginally inferior may make sense to HTC's hierarchy but not to the thousands of cash conscious consumers out there. Adios, HTC. You actually were an incredibly well-known brand once upon a time but just look what's happened to you since . . .

      1. paulf
        Mushroom

        Re: Relatively unknown brand . . .

        Another thing. They might still be better known if they had offered decent support and regular handset firmware updates over the two year lifetime of a typical contract. In a world of landfill Android this would have been a nice way to differentiate their offer.

        I had two HTC handsets (Hero and Sensation). Both got the minimum of updates (eventually, if at all) yet they still had plenty of unresolved bugs. HTC support was useless when I experienced the "Random Turn off" bug in the Sensation which made a £500 handset worse than useless. I went to another manufacturer (where I remain to this day, and later this year will likely get my third handset from them) while the Sensation experienced a similar fate as your Desire HD will...

  5. glussier

    My first 3 android phones were from htc and, I finally decided to move on. The phones were great, I did like htc sense and text reflow. What I didn't like is htc longterm software support, and if I was lucky enough to get a software upgrade, most of the time it rendered the phone almost useless.

    I gave them enough chances, and, as far as I am concerned, this is game over for them.

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