HTC Profits Drop By 79% 209
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:Haha (Score:4, Interesting)
That's kind of the lesson here isn't it?
The Android phone market isn't quite what I would call "settled" or mature just yet. People are still exploring them and building their expectations of them. This means that when people see something in another phone that they can't or don't have in theirs, the bridge between consumer and manufacturer/seller goes up like flash paper.
HTC decided that the carriers are their customers instead of the people who actually hold the phones in their hands. So yeah, they were pretty douchey if you like to put it that way. That and HTC isn't well known for putting out "premium" handsets. (If they actually make premium handsets, I don't know.) So what you get are pretty low expectations and a lot of frustrations.
It doesn't hurt that the "anyone who does phone business with Microsoft is doomed" tradition is alive and well. That problem has been on-going for a very long time and I still haven't seen a success story yet.
Re:It's because they removed the SD Card (Score:5, Interesting)
I can agree with this.
I've got a HTC Desire Z, which is coming up for an upgrade on my contract. As a tablet, I have a HTC Flyer (bought at steep discount recently).
The phone has just a touch more than 32Gb of storage used between internal and external combined. The Flyer, with 32Gb internal AND a 32Gb SD card, is doing fine.
I really want a HTC One X. It's a straight up choice between that and a Samsung Galaxy S3. The HTC's build quality is better (mmmm, polycarbonate!) and it has HTC Sense - which I am used to and quite like.
But I know that the moment I move to the HTC One X, I'll have to trim a few MP3s out just to do the migration. Now, perhaps that's no bad thing. It's probably overdue in fact.
But if I buy the Samsung S3, I just throw my SD card in the back and start re-installing apps. It feels cheap and plasticky? Sure, buy a silicon skin from ebay or Amazon. Problem solved.
HTC have released a 64Gb version of the HTC One X, but it's too little too late. As a still newly released flagship version, it'll be much more expensive than the S3 by December/January when my upgrade rolls around.
So currently, I'm veering towards the Samsung. If the HTC One X had an SD card slot, the S3 would get about a second's consideration, then I'd buy the HTC anyway. Instead, I'm buying apps like HD Widgets (in the recent Play store sale) and starting to migrate my widgets from Sense ones to those where applicable.
Sorry, HTC. You've made a phone that's brilliant, but you forgot a very simple feature...
Re:It's because they removed the SD Card (Score:5, Interesting)
No stupid skins, just pure Android.
Fast
Zero bloatware
Updates
SD-Card
Easily unlockable bootloader
Awesome build quality
Replaceable batteries
Beautiful screen.
.
Reasons I dislike the new HTC phones
Terrible skins
slow (odd stutters, I think related to the skins/bloatware)
Slow updates (and CM appearing to have issues as the drivers/specs hard to get hold of)
Lack of SD-Cards (I get it, MS want's their cut, but what's the price? If it's 5bucks a device, I'm happy to pay that extra)
Locked bootloaders
Build quality falling. Pic up a HTC One S/X and on first glance it looks good, but tolerances appear to have slipped, just... not as good milling for the metal.
Non-replaceable batteries.
.
Screens are still good though, the contrast is great. The Camera was great quality too (though not THE most important item on a phone).
.
HTC, look, you're stepping away from why your phones were so beloved at the time. You're letting 'idiot marketing/execs' get in the way of
Simple (Score:5, Interesting)
Change the name of the poorly named HTC EVO 4G LTE to the EVO 5 then advertise it. It stacks up well against the competition, but either people think it's a 2 year old phone or they've never heard of it.
This is unfortunate (Score:5, Interesting)
HTC make the second best Android phones behind Samsung. If Samsung turn evil or make stupid decisions I don't agree with, I like having HTC there as a backup. I owned a HTC HD2 (no it's not a native Android phone) but the build quality, for the time was fairly good and HTC Sense really isn't that bad. (Then again, I don't hate touchwiz either)
I hear Sony's Android phones aren't shabby but I have a hard time believing a juggernaught like Sony would release timely products or updates. Also LG and Motorola both "not bad" but HTC is definitely, in my eyes #2 - it'd be a shame to see them completely slayed.
I don't follow them too closely but I believe they were continuing to focus on Microsoft based phones which seems, completely foolhardy to me - the sales numbers on those things would be quite miniscule, fingers crossed they remain competitive. (The HTC One X does have a glorious screen, but the lack of removable battery or SD card slot is a no no, the actual design however - for the most part is quite nice looking like the S3)