HTC Profits Drop By 79%

An anonymous reader writes "HTC is the world's fifth largest phone maker, but it's starting to feel some serious pressure from giants like Samsung and Apple. HTC's third quarter net income dropped 79% from the previous quarter, and total revenues were down 48%. 'Sales of HTC's flagship One series, which debuted in February, are trailing off as Apple and Samsung spend four to six times more on marketing to ensure the iPhone 5 and the Galaxy SIII dominate the market, while strongly subsidizing their older models ... HTC's share of the global smartphone market by shipments fell to 5.8% in the second quarter from 10.7% a year earlier, according to Bloomberg. The company released its first Windows Phone 8 models in September, its most high-profile pre-Christmas launch, but Microsoft's operating system has yet to establish itself as a serious third player after Google's Android and Apple's iOS.'"

Re:It's because they removed the SD Card

[MoreDruid]

Don't get me wrong, I fell in love with the specs and screen as well. I still like the model, I just happened to have gotten a lousy unit and HTC has been very reluctant to help me out for about 3 months now which is dissappointing if you've just shelled out 579 Euros (almost $ 750) for a smartphone. When I went shopping for it it was a toss-up between the SIII and the One X and brand loyalty (and the fact that I think that the blue plasticy shell of the SIII is hideous) made me choose the HTC. I've owned the Touch, Desire and bought the Wildfire for my kid and they were all good phones, where everything just worked. There are more people than just the ones on the XDA board, like I said, 2 family members have the same issue as I have but didn't notice it because they don't use the navigation on the phone.

The guys that do the pickup do all the pickups for HTC in the Netherlands and at the 3rd visit (I got the same driver each time) he told me they were picking up lots of the HTC Ones, a lot of Apple iPhones but very few Samsungs, and those were mostly by user defect (cracked screen, etc).

All that leads me to not recommending it. However: if the unit you get doesn't have issues it's a very good phone, I like the build quality and feel of it, very good phone quality, the CPU is fast and doesn't drain the battery too fast, the screen is very nice and bright, the OS is responsive, basically everything you'd ask from a top model, and something I've come to expect by using my previous HTC phones.

Re:Sad

[compro01]

Might try a keyboard with arrow keys. Hacker's keyboard [google.com] is a nice one.

Though the keys get kinda small if you use the full 5-row layout in portrait mode, at least on my Incredible S.