In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, HTC Chief Executive Officer Peter Chou offered some explanation for why 2012 was one of the company’s poorest-performing years in recent memory. HTC has fallen considerably in both stock price and market share since a high point in 2010, when they were the largest Android manufacturer in North America.
“The worst for HTC has probably passed. 2013 will not be too bad,” Chou said. “Our competitors were too strong and very resourceful, pouring in lots of money into marketing. We haven’t done enough on the marketing front,” he admitted.
Since 2010, HTC has seen its market share intruded on by both Samsung’s Android offerings and, of course, the iPhone. It is also feeling the pressure from low-cost Chinese manufacturers like ZTE and Huawei. HTC will be releasing their preliminary earnings for the fourth quarter of 2012 on Monday.
“Although we don’t have as much money to counter [Samsung and Apple], the most important thing is to have unique products that appeal to consumers,” Chou said. Despite losing share elsewhere, HTC actually outsold Apple in China in third quarter 2012.
HTC had a pretty great 2012 in Canada: it launched the One X, One S and One V in April, followed by the Desire C in July and the One X+ in November. Let’s hope that this year it manages to turn great products into great sales numbers.
Source: The Wall Street Journal
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