HTC, which left its mark on the past and made a great contribution to the development of the mobile industry, could not leave behind the bad days it had been through for years. What happened to the manufacturer, which came to the point of being wiped out from the market it used to rule, as a result of wrong policies. Let’s see…
Established in Taiwan in 1997, High Tech Computer Corporation, or HTC as we know it, started to produce laptops in the first place. The company, which started to design the world’s first touch and wireless handheld device a year after its establishment, also broke new ground in the sector.
Brand of firsts: HTC
When HTC is mentioned, there are undoubtedly phones with durable and unique designs, HTC Sense interface and of course the firsts it has brought to the mobile sector. The company, which has been the brand of firsts for years; released one of the first touchscreen smartphones in 2000. In addition, the first Android operating system, the first Microsoft operating system, the first Microsoft 3G, the first 4G supported phone in the United Kingdom was presented to the mobile sector, where it was weak separately.
HTC, which has been mentioned a lot especially in 2011 and the next few years, and is third behind Samsung and Apple in the market; Sony, Nokia and LG have been badly hurt by wrong policies. Capturing 24 percent of the American market in 2011, the company made a name for itself all over the world. All that happened after this success.
Success in 2011 brought that statement
Launching a total of 28 smartphones in 2011, including ChaCha, Salsa, Sensation XL, Amaze 4G and Wildfire S, the company had success in every segment. While people were turning to HTC for Beats Audio, that perfect out-of-the-box earphone and extremely durable material, a statement made in 2012 started to negatively affect the whole situation. At least it lit the first spark.
Peter Chou, who was also the CEO of HTC at that time, announced a very wrong decision for the company in 2012. The CEO said that such a successful manufacturer will only produce expensive and high-end smartphones from now on. This meant that affordable phones were no longer at the forefront of the brand.
HTC wanted to follow in Apple’s footsteps
With the statement, HTC began to be thought to be taking Apple as an example. As a matter of fact, the American giant Apple, from the very beginning, introduced a small number of phones every year and offered these phones for sale at the $ 1000 band. After this development, bankruptcy bells began to ring for HTC. Sure, to those who can hear…
The decision was pretty bad for the company. As a matter of fact, the producer was loved not only by the rich, but also by people with low budgets. HTC, which started to sell high-end phones at high prices in 2012, continued to make mistakes without stopping. So much so that not long after the new policy, the second statement came. HTC has partnered with Microsoft.
error, error; errors
HTC, which started to adapt the Windows Phone operating system, which was about to collapse, in the process it started to protect its brand reputation, managed to diversify its product range greatly. The company introduced a total of 31 smartphones in 2012. While 27 of these phones normally came out of the box with Android, 4 of them were running Windows Phone.
Among the phones introduced in 2012, there were models such as HTC Windows Phone 8S, One SV and Primo. On the one hand, the manufacturer was struggling with Samsung, which is the leader in the industry, and Apple, which followed it, on the other hand, it was dealing with poor people that it did not look at. So much so that HTC, pulling its feet from the lower and middle segments, met the rising stars of the Chinese in an unpleasant way: Huawei and Xiaomi.
Chinese invasion begins
In this process, Huawei and Xiaomi, which became popular in China and gradually hailed the global market, embraced low-budget people whom HTC despised. HTC, which suddenly went into decline, lost its reputation, let alone making progress, on the way it started to protect its brand value.
The managers, who realized that it was wrong to produce high-end phones, had to wink again in 2013. The company, which introduced fewer devices during the year compared to the previous two years, started to bring products to the middle segment as well. HTC, which came across users with 18 smartphones in 2013, was gradually leaving the Windows Phone operating system.
The world’s first all-metal phone: HTC One
Only one of the 18 phones introduced came out of the box with Windows Phone. It was also the HTC 8XT model. Other models included devices such as the Desire 700, Butterfly S and Desire 200. However, the most popular phone among them was the HTC One, which was the first in the industry with its material.
HTC One, one of the best of 2013, was launched as the first all-metal smartphone. 4. 7-inch Super LCD 3-panel One with 1080×1920 pixels FHD resolution and 469 ppi pixel density was recorded in the memories as M7 by a large audience.
The phone, which has 2GB RAM and 32GB / 64GB storage options, had the Beats Audio sound system like other HTCs. Reminding itself with this phone, the company also caught one of its biggest competitors. The Galaxy S4 and HTC One, which were introduced in the same year, gave almost the same performance. However, this was not reflected in the sales figures.
Despite everything, Samsung made the difference
Competing head-to-head with Samsung’s flagship in terms of performance and features, and unrivaled in terms of material quality, HTC One could not even pass by the Galaxy S4 with its sales figures. The Galaxy S4 sold 7 times more than the phone. However, HTC had a significant success from its own perspective.
HTC’s One model was the company’s best-selling smartphone up to that time. More than 4 million units of the device were sold in about three months. Introduced later, HTCs started to appeal not only to the upper segment, but also to the lower segment.
The first phone with dual rear cameras: HTC One M8
Stepping into 2014 with another first, HTC introduced the One M8 model in March. The phone introduced was the world’s first dual rear camera smartphone. With a 5.0 inch FHD resolution Super LCD3 display, the One M8 continued the metal case tradition. The Snapdragon 801, which was a headache with the heating problem, was on this phone.
The manufacturer, who spent 2014 with mid-segment models, introduced a total of 29 smartphones. While the Windows Phone version of the One M8 was offered to the user during the year; Desire 620, Desire 820 and Desire Eye models became official during the year.
Despite all this, HTC, which continues to lose power, has been badly damaged by not being able to protect its brand value. In the process leading up to the company’s One M9, its market value has halved. Gaining momentum in this process, the Chinese began to dominate the market. The manufacturer, who could not do anything against the rise of Huawei and Xiaomi, was bringing high-end phones to the market with the standard design line with the same determination.
“Whatever I do doesn’t work, it doesn’t work like it used to…”
People were bored with HTC phones that were expensive and looked the same. The policy change in 2012 also narrowed HTC’s fan base. For this reason, no matter how high quality phones the company produced, no one was interested in devices. HTC, which did not reduce the price at the end of the process and could not keep up with the innovations, lost its market share to a large extent.
The company, which could not use its money properly, was not forgotten only because of repetitive models and wrong policy. HTC was also losing due to bad advertising strategy. As a matter of fact, the company shot a short promotional film with Robert Downey, who played Iron Man, for the commercial in 2013. For a few minutes of commercials, the actor was paid 12 million dollars.
$1 billion advertising, 0 earnings
In the same year, not only Robert Downey, but also many people and advertising work were paid a fortune. HTC management allocated a $1 billion advertising budget that year. Such a risk could not recover HTC as expected. The company’s brand value continued to erode.
HTC, which has started to introduce fewer phones every year and withdraws from these businesses, sold a part of its R&D department to Google for $1.1 billion in 2017. That year, the company introduced only 6 smartphones, and none of them made an impact.
It’s the end of the story
The company, which produced 7 phones in 2018 and openly said we lost, tried to make a small attack (!) in 2019. HTC introduced 8 smartphones in 2019. Then another legend had already disappeared from our lives.
HTC, which could not be successful in the mobile industry in 2020 and 2021, became one of the biggest victims of wrong policies. “As the year 2021 ends, users who have become prisoners of Chinese companies, sworn to never forget HTC’s material quality, sound system and those ambitious screens forever, made the joke of “HaTiCe” and continued to struggle for their lives…”, the story ended here.
So what do you think about HTC? Have you used HTC’s phones before? You can specify in the comments…
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