Report: HTC sales will be flat in 2017

Earlier today, we passed along the opinions of a few analysts who said that the HTC Bolt would not help HTC pick up market share. While the handset does perform very fast on Sprint's LTE Plus network, tech savvy consumers are afraid  of the Snapdragon 810 chipset's propensity to overheat. A good question to ask is why use the chipset at all on a phone that is otherwise a high-end model? Certainly the idea was to save HTC some money, but it could backfire.

The malaise that has affected HTC will continue through 2017 according to industry sources. In a report published today, these unnamed sources say that HTC will continue to have sluggish smartphone shipments next year as momentum fades for its high-end models. The HTC brand also is suffering from a declining image among smartphone buyers. And while HTC does build the successful Google designed Pixel series, HTC is serving as a contract manufacturer for the phones.

Industry sources say that HTC will ship 400,000 units of its HTC Vive VR headset this year. That total will rise 50% next year, constrained in part by component shortages. Despite a $100 discount for the holidays, the sources say that the Vive is also hamstrung by its lack of a 'killer app' and the high price of the PCs that are compatible with the device.

The company's current flagship phone, the HTC 10, is by all accounts the best such model ever made by the company. But HTC continues to have a problem with marketing its phones. You might recall that the company spent $12 million to procure the talents of Robert Downey Jr. back in 2013. A single commercial starring the actor failed to generate business. Gary Oldman replaced Downey for ads about the HTC One (M8); these ads also failed to produce business for HTC.

If the company is series about about competing in the Android handset market, it already has fixed the issues that dogged them previously by improving the camera, and adding a beefier battery. Now, HTC needs to work on its marketing if it wants to seriously challenge Samsung, LG, Lenovo and Huawei.


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source: DigiTimes