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HTC To Stop Making Budget Android Phones This Year (neowin.net)
An anonymous reader shares a report: During HTC's quarterly earnings call for Q4 2016, the company confirmed that it will not be producing new budget Android phones beginning this year. Instead, the company will focus on premium devices, which have a higher profit margin. On revenue of NT $22.2bn, the firm posted an operating loss of NT $3.6bn, and it's been some time since HTC showed a profit. Clearly, it's time to trim some of the fat. And that fat is producing a number of entry-level phones, many of which are nearly identical. For example, the Desire 530, which came to the US in July, had virtually no distinction from the Desire 626, which was introduced a year before.
I realise that's in theory. HTC have kind of fucked up in recent years and it's less to do with their hardware but how they've marketed them.
With those kinds of losses, budget phones are the least of their problem. A management team that can do math would be a good start.
... still make phones? Had no idea.... They suck at marketing their products and it looks like they are going down the drain. Why buy products from a dying company?
I don't mean to denigrate foreign (in this case, Asian) manufacturers. The fact is they're quite successful at what they're doing, which means they're doing exactly what they ought to. If people don't feel the quality is up to their standards, they should return to the old way of saving up until they can afford the quality they want - and demanding that manufacturers provide the quality they perceive they deserve.
I used to have an HTC. It never got any updates after I bought it, and it turned into a horrifically slow mess.
I now have a Galaxy S5, and before it an S4. The S4 received updates until recently, and the S5 is still getting updates. These are not new phones, but apparently Samsung still bothers to keep their software up-to-date.
I really don't care how nice the hardware is in any HTC phone; they've shown that they don't care about taking care of customers after the first sale, and that they expect them to just buy a new phone in a year. I'll pass, and stick with companies with better track records than this.
Since the vast majority of Android's oft-touted "superior marketshare" numbers is made up of these kinds of shitbox phones, if other OEMs follow suit, you'll soon see the real reason why the Android platform has so many phones in the wild, vs. Apple.
It is a pity HTC is late - there are already various players at the high end market too. If you are neither number one or two, then you should bail.
"HTC To Begin Charging Premium For Their Budget Android Phones This Year" Their devices just do not have that schick feel, regardless of the tag.
Maybe I am one of the few people who have had very good luck with their phones. My first HTC phone was a HTC Wizard over eleven years ago. It lasted four years, the battery lasted a week on standby, and its dual-core TI OMAP could easily be overclocked. At the time Windows Mobile applications were decent, although it requires a stylus.
I have bought a few HTC devices, and have been happy with them. All still work, and the only reason I set them aside was for an upgrade. For example, my el cheapo HTC A9 is still going strong, especially with CM/LineageOS.
The nice thing about HTC is that all their devices are unlockable, bootloader wise. Yes, if you want to SIM unlock, you might have to use the Sunshine S/OFF app, but $25 separating you from an unlocked device... that isn't too bad.
Feature-wise, I've not found anything HTC devices lack that other brands have. The camera has been decent, the phone responsive, the fingerprint scanner accurate... everyday things are well up to snuff. Since I always use a case for my phones, I'm not as worried about feel.
From a security point of view, the devices are made in Taiwan, not China, which may not mean much, but it makes the devices feel more trustworthy.
As for the market, maybe HTC should have another line for budget phones. HTC for the flagship lines, then have a different company or subsidiary to run head to head against Huawei, BLU, and other competitors in that field. HTC can curry favor with the prime telcos in countries, while the lower-end subsidary can focus on getting their devices into the Tescos, Poundlands, Family Dollar, and other stores.
2010: 24M, 2011: 156M
HTC just unveiled one of the best Android phones of 2016, but you can’t have one -- The HTC 10 EVO is only available on Sprint.
Also throughout 2016, there were numerous reports that claimed HTC would stop selling Flagship phones in America completely.
The HTC Desire was my first touchscreen smartphone, and for more than a year it was the best device on the planet and way ahead of anything else, including the iPhones of that time. The Flyer Tablet was a seriously impressive device, topping the iPad of the day in every aspect.
Now roughly 6 years later HTC is barely recognizable. A bloated and jumbled lineup of smartphones with nothing clearly sticking out. I'd cut 80% of the devices offered and focus on building the best smarrtphones available again.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
Got the HTC Rezound when it first came out and it was an amazing phone.
Then they lost their way and decided to become another iPhone wannabe (no removable battery, etc) and I left them for LG. It's too bad all these manufacturers can't seem to figure out differentiating features that people are willing to pay for.
I abandoned HTC and android after repeatedly being let down by lack of firmware updates and having to resort to installing ROMs cobbled together by devs over at XDA. They have this weird model of deliberately obsoleting phones every 18 months which in the end pisses the consumer off.
Have no idea why they didn't offer software upgrades after 18 months as a paid for option. A lot of people would have chosen to pay for a nominal $19 firmware update after the support ended especially it it brought newer features.
Could have been a great source of revenue for HTC plus greener as less handsets end up in landfill.
I - and many, many other people - want a small ( less than 4.5" screen ) phone that is NOT budget, thinness does not matter - Width, Height and robustness do !
Why does no manufacturer make phones like that instead of all the Ludicrous Superthin Superfragile Phablets ?!
It's a shame HTC doesn't do better. Their smart phones were real work horses built for true nerds and could handle CPU intense fringe applications. They were putting in real CPU power back when Apple couldn't even open a big image and couldn't multitask music. The old HTC phones were completely programmable too. OS flashable, could handle high density micro SD cards, switchable batteries, etc.
They really needed better marketing years ago, I knew about them, but my friends didn't, but loved them after informed.