HTC struggling to sell 1 million HTC 10 units this year?

[erasat]

HTC needs to do something. Doing the same thing over and over but expecting a different result is the definition of insanity. What they have been trying doesn't seem to be the right thing to do, so it's time for something drastic.

Focus on mid range devices, start mass producing chips for Qualcomm... something....anything.

Exactly what I'm saying, it's obvious what they are doing for the past 5 years doesn't work, so do something dramatic and force a change or die trying.

 

[Habiib]

And again, according to you they better pack it up and leave the phone market as obviously they will never have an Apple or Samsung logo on it. You can say that I'm wrong hundreds of times more, it doesn't mean you are right either, and I think your approach to the problem is more in the negative side than the positive one. I said it before and will say it again, according to that, then all the other companies just should close and move on, I say that if you can't compete at the flagship level you MUST adjust or you'll die, so far, HTC has been stubborn about it and borderline arrogant, at their current situations they should refocus and keep doing a great phone like the HTC 10 but pricing it more to a mid range than a Flagship, sacrifices must be done in order to achieve that, maybe some changes on the build, but if there are other Chinese companies matching specs and in some cases build, they can also do it. if Asus is gaining momentum, increasing their market share little by little then your logic doesn't make sense, they are priced way below all of them and they are selling a lot of phones. Huawei and Meizu are other Chinese companies that are doing great, OnePlus is also doing some noise, so why HTC can't? No it's not just brand name, it's a combination of it and it's price.

http://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/asus-plans-to-double-smartphone-market-share-this-year-116070100764_1.html

http://www.androidheadlines.com/2016/02/asus-adjusts-2016-sales-goal-aims-to-sell-25-million-phones.html


If they don't want to adjust or won't add some value at the flagship level then it's their death for sure.

Yes they absolutely should pack it up. If their best effort isn't enough to "stand out", then it's completely hopeless for them. If they price the 10 like a midrange, that'd cut into their profits which would need to be offset by selling at a higher volume (which I can assure you can't happen). How can they sell more phones when they struggle to get their inventory into carrier and other brick and mortar stores? Pricing the 10 like a midrange would do little to increase sales (since they have little stock in stores begin with), so that idea would be a waste. If HTC can't compete on pricing, marketing, or by standing out, then there are no more tricks to pull out the hat.


Also that Asus article pointed out an interesting fact as to how they too are feeling the squeeze from the Chinese vendors. If a company the size of Asus is feeling the pressure, what chance does little HTC stand? None.

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[erasat]

Yes they absolutely should pack it up. If their best effort isn't enough to "stand out", then it's completely hopeless for them. If they price the 10 like a midrange, that'd cut into their profits which would need to be offset by selling at a higher volume (which I can assure you can't happen). How can they sell more phones when they struggle to get their inventory into carrier and other brick and mortar stores? Pricing the 10 like a midrange would do little to increase sales (since they have little stock in stores begin with), so that idea would be a waste. If HTC can't compete on pricing, marketing, or by standing out, then there are no more tricks to pull out the hat.


Also that Asus article pointed out an interesting fact as to how they too are feeling the squeeze from the Chinese vendors. If a company the size of Asus is feeling the pressure, what chance does little HTC stand? None.

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That article shows that Asus is expecting to sell 25M phones this year, a company that just sell mid range phones, huge contrast of less than a million, 25M of mid range phones with mid range profits is a lot better and makes a lot more sense than trying to sell less than 1M of flagship phones, don't you think?, plus it will look a lot better for your stockholders and future possible investors, the way they are now and insist on keeping, doesn't look any good from any angle.

 

[dpham00]

depends on the market... I sell both and I know for a fact some people won't even look at the ford no matter how much u discount them and I have some ppl who won't look at the bmw bc they think they are gonna be too expensive when in fact u can get some bmws cheaper than some fords but it's perception

I would agree that there would be some that would not take a free fusion, but you said originally that the majority of the people wouldn't take a free fusion over $10k off a bmw. That is what I disagree with. Offering free fusions would bring in a lot more sales then would knocking $10k off a bmw. Just like, many wouldn't give the 10 another look but offer it free or for close to free no contract, and I would not be surprised if the 10 sales would sky rocket.

Sure there are some that won't touch a fusion or a 10, even free or near free, but the majority of people would.

 

[Habiib]

That article shows that Asus is expecting to sell 25M phones this year, a company that just sell mid range phones, huge contrast of less than a million, 25M of mid range phones with mid range profits is a lot better and makes a lot more sense than trying to sell less than 1M of flagship phones, don't you think?, plus it will look a lot better for your stockholders and future possible investors, the way they are now and insist on keeping, doesn't look any good from any angle.

Profits made matter more raw sales numbers. HTC could sell 50 million devices this year, but if that doesn't translate to an increase in profits (i.e., year over year), then investors wouldn't have much to delight in. Likewise if the costs for conducting business outweighs whatever revenue they bring in, then it is all for naught. They'll be even more compromised in their ability to fund R&D towards product innovation. Chances are they'll get even less of a return based on what was spent during product development. Given all that they've put into the 10, it's like they wasted their time and money on something that didn't sell. They've been this maelstrom they can't escape.

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[erasat]

Profits made matter more raw sales numbers. HTC could sell 50 million devices this year, but if that doesn't translate to an increase in profits (i.e., year over year), then investors wouldn't have much to delight in. Likewise if the costs for conducting business outweighs whatever revenue they bring in, then it is all for naught. They'll be even more compromised in their ability to fund R&D towards product innovation. Chances are they'll get even less of a return based on what was spent during product development. Given all that they've put into the 10, it's like they wasted their time and money on something that didn't sell. They've been this maelstrom they can't escape.

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Let me see, the cost of R&D has already been spent, so whatever it was is already there, so now you have 2 options, try to sell 1M at $200 net profit or 25M at $20 ($180 discount) net profit, now tell me with that simple math, which one is better $200M or $500M?

Hey man, you can keep going on and on with your thoughts and I can do the same and I think that at this point we should simply agree to disagree and move on, nothing we do here debating on a forum will change the simple fact that HTC is doing horribly bad and haven't even sold 1M phones this year when Asus is expecting to sell 25M phones, so something Asus is doing better than HTC and that is not just marketing or Brand recognition, it's great specs phones nothing too fancy or special but at half the prices of HTC ones., they have no market share at the flagship level, but they are getting stronger and stronger together with the rest of mid-range phones companies, so HTC do have some opportunities, they must leave their ego to the sides and face the truth, make a great mid-range phone and price it comparable with the rest of similar phones and they will be even in advantage against the other ones, they will have Brand recognition at that level, something they don't have anymore at the highest range.

 

[foxbat121]

The problem here is that a small company like HTC can't survive dolling out cheap low to mid end phones. That's what most Chinese phone makers do best with their cheap labor and non-existent R&D and marketing cost. Race to the price bottom never saved any company, small or large. That's exactly what Nokia was doing before it crash and burned (selling crap load of cheap $100 Symbian phones, once world's #1 phone maker).

 

[Habiib]

.... they must leave their ego to the sides and face the truth, make a great mid-range phone and price it comparable with the rest of similar phones and they will be even in advantage against the other ones, they will have Brand recognition at that level, something they don't have anymore at the highest range.

... And that would do nothing to stop their decline. If the HTC 10 is only worthy of being priced like a midrange, then their midrange would only be worthy of entry level or budget phone pricing. They will never be at an advantage. So again, they'll be at a disadvantage from having to make less per device, plus they'd not be able to move enough units to avoid having a glut of unsold inventory in the product channel. There is no debate when it comes to how pricing won't save HTC. Also HTC put everything they had into the 10 and it still gets downplayed. I'm not seeing how a company who can't even compete with their best offering, will have anything but poor brand recognition. There's no undoing that.

Also you severely underestimate just how low HTC sits. Asus has far more brand recognition than HTC by a long shot. Look at their rankings as far as tech companies go. Look at the diversity of AsusTek's product portfolio compared to HTC's. There's no comparison.

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[Habiib]

The problem here is that a small company like HTC can't survive dolling out cheap low to mid end phones. That's what most Chinese phone makers do best with their cheap labor and non-existent R&D and marketing cost. Race to the price bottom never saved any company, small or large. That's exactly what Nokia was doing before it crash and burned (selling crap load of cheap $100 Symbian phones, once world's #1 phone maker).

Yerp, pretty much. I can't fathom why this fact is so hard to grasp. HTC gets hammered at the flagship level by Apple and Samsung and they'll get hammered even harder in the midrange segment by Chinese and Taiwanese vendors in Asian markets. They (HTC) do seem to do well in Japan though.

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[erasat]

The problem here is that a small company like HTC can't survive dolling out cheap low to mid end phones. That's what most Chinese phone makers do best with their cheap labor and non-existent R&D and marketing cost. Race to the price bottom never saved any company, small or large. That's exactly what Nokia was doing before it crash and burned (selling crap load of cheap $100 Symbian phones, once world's #1 phone maker).

And keep doing what they are doing will cause their death even faster with high R&D costs and no return to even compensate for it. So that's it, they should give up and close according to some comments here, one thing I learned in life and I live by it, to keep doing what I want and never give up, in this case, their only option is to do something, noise at least, and if they die, they die trying not just giving up. If their only option is really making midrange phones just do what the rest does, keep costs low and competitive prices at that market and hope that what is left of their name reputation can give them an advantage over the dozens of other brands and phones.

 

[Premium1]

Google should just buy HTC, get them back on the right track like they did with moto (and sell them to a better company this time)

 

[Bildriver]

In MI. @ the sprint store there is a fully functional HTC 10.

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[dpham00]

Google should just buy HTC, get them back on the right track like they did with moto (and sell them to a better company this time)

Except that HTC doesn't have any patents that Google wants.

 

[Aquila]

HTC has a good? cross licensing agreement with Apple though...

 

[Premium1]

Except that HTC doesn't have any patents that Google wants.

It was meant more as sarcasm. Sadly they don't really have much to offer companies so can't see them being bought by anyone unfortunately

 

[bhatech]

Good phone, $100 to $150 priced higher than it should be and people still continue to buy from useless carriers all contribute to lackluster sales.

 

[Habiib]

And keep doing what they are doing will cause their death even faster with high R&D costs and no return to even compensate for it. So that's it, they should give up and close according to some comments here, one thing I learned in life and I live by it, to keep doing what I want and never give up, in this case, their only option is to do something, noise at least, and if they die, they die trying not just giving up. If their only option is really making midrange phones just do what the rest does, keep costs low and competitive prices at that market and hope that what is left of their name reputation can give them an advantage over the dozens of other brands and phones.

They have no more options left in the smartphone market. Midranges would not work out well for them. I've stated before that the Chinese vendors own that segment.

They do have a future in VR. Being that the Vive has crossed the 100K mark for sales, I think the VR market holds promise for them.

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[dpham00]

HTC has a good? cross licensing agreement with Apple though...

Not sure if the agreement would transfer to the new owner. Even if it did , considering that Eric Schmidt was on Apple's board of directors, I am assuming that Google could have made a similar cross licensing agreement, if it wanted to.

 

[dpham00]

They have no more options left in the smartphone market. Midranges would not work out well for them. I've stated before that the Chinese vendors own that segment.

They do have a future in VR. Being that the Vive has crossed the 100K mark for sales, I think the VR market holds promise for them.

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They will have to settle for razor thin margins if they want to sell in good numbers. Selling a for a premium price won't work because they just don't have the name anymore.

 

[foxbat121]

HTC started by manufacturing phones for all other major brands (a lot of old BlackBerries are made by HTC) before it ventured out to make its own brand of phones (XDA-Developers get its name from various xDA smartphones HTC shipped). Too bad, OEM phone business is now all in China (think Foxcom).