HTC now actually losing money

[joshhedge]

Such a shame, HTC is the one company that rivals Apple in my eyes. I will continue to support them with a new purchase next year, but I wonder how long until they suffer the same fate as blackberry.

 

[Mopetar]

How is HTC losing money with their flagship phone when it sells for $600, yet Google is not losing money on the N4?

Google doesn't lose money on their Nexus phones because they just sell them for whatever the cost to them happens to be within some narrow margin. They place an order with their manufacturing partner and then sell the device to consumers at cost. Their intention is to make money from the customers using Google's services and Google serving ads to those customers.

 

[foghorn67]

My point is not pedantic. And your insult is completely unnecessary.

The volume rocker on the One is simply too flush with the side. The same can be said of the power/wake button. It will bother some. It won't bother others.

Buttons are important on a smartphone. Not only are the One's buttons too flush with the side, the power/wake button placement is a mistake in the upper left. A phone that large should have their power button on the right side of the device. The One Max made this change.

That was an insult? Sorry, you have thin skin. The volume has been getting accolades. I in fact, love it. I have no problems with it.
I still stand behind my statement, it's a pedantic post. You do a lot of them.
It's not an insult.

 

[lopri]

The HTC One was/is a great phone and I do not know why some of you are obsessed with corporations' quarterly profits (or the lack thereof). It has not been a concern of mine.

 

[lopri]

Granted some of the reviews from the tech blogs at that time were somewhat distasteful, but that wasn't HTC's fault. If I remember correctly even some mainstream media (newspapers and TVs) picked up on it eventually and praised the One for its craftsmanship.

 

[s44]

The HTC One was/is a great phone and I do not know why some of you are obsessed with corporations' quarterly profits (or the lack thereof). It has not been a concern of mine.

Small profits/big profits are a whatever, but an actual turn to making losses after what was supposed to be a company-saving rebranding/refocus is a big concern.

Of course the One is great. So is pretty much every other high-end phone on the market. That's HTC's problem: the differences there now aren't big enough for people to deviate too much from what their friends have been buying. And honestly, that's why the device polarization has gotten so silly between One/Samsung/Nexus fans... because there's really little difference.

 

[blairharrington]

That was an insult? Sorry, you have thin skin. The volume has been getting accolades. I in fact, love it. I have no problems with it.
I still stand behind my statement, it's a pedantic post. You do a lot of them.
It's not an insult.

Calling anyone's point pedantic is an insult. Yes. And further strange when we are discussing the buttons on a smartphone, which are indeed important.

I'm not talking about the volume output of the speakers. I'm focusing on the rocker itself. Bizarre that you would even bring up one thing when I'm talking about another.

I 'do a lot of them'. Would you like to elaborate? Are you implying that all or the majority of my posts on this forum bring up pedantic details on a smartphone? That's pretty ridiculous.

 

[foghorn67]

Calling anyone's point pedantic is an insult. Yes. And further strange when we are discussing the buttons on a smartphone, which are indeed important.

I'm not talking about the volume output of the speakers. I'm focusing on the rocker itself. Bizarre that you would even bring up one thing when I'm talking about another.

I 'do a lot of them'. Would you like to elaborate? Are you implying that all or the majority of my posts on this forum bring up pedantic details on a smartphone? That's pretty ridiculous.

What's funny is I'm talking about the rocker. edit, omitted the word "rocker" was well aware you were talking about the rocker.

I've never heard of anyone complaining about the rocker. And yes, it is noted on reviews quite often of being quite good.

To clarify, long worded and pedantic. It's not a personal attack, it's merely pointing out a trend.

 

[desura]

Such a shame, HTC is the one company that rivals Apple in my eyes. I will continue to support them with a new purchase next year, but I wonder how long until they suffer the same fate as blackberry.

I keep on expecting them to get acquired or bought out by a bigger player. Never quite saw why that wasn't happening.

Also...didn't Google seriously diss them in regards to the Nexus phones? Something about finding them lackluster and so not worthy of consideration.

I've always liked HTC devices, much more so than Samsung.

 

[blairharrington]

What's funny is I'm talking about the rocker. edit, omitted the word "rocker" wa. well ware you were talking about the roc. r.

I've never heard of anyone complaining about the rocker. And yes, it is noted on reviews quite often of being quite good.

To clarify, long worded and pedantic. It's not a personal attack, it's merely pointing out a trend.

You might understand my confusion when you simply refer to a volume rocker as 'volume'. Says a lot about you.

I've read reviews and/or online comments complaining that the rocker is too flush.

My respones are long worded? Is English your second language? You have some serious guts to say such a thing to me. I fucking hate this forum sometimes.

 

[BladeVenom]

Short memories. Making a truck load of low end, budget handsets is what got HTC into trouble in the first place.

How do you figure that, when this is their "first ever quarterly loss."

 

[foghorn67]

You might understand my confusion when you simply refer to a volume rocker as 'volume'. Says a lot about you.

I've read reviews and/or online comments complaining that the rocker is too flush.

My respones are long worded? Is English your second language? You have some serious guts to say such a thing to me. I fucking hate this forum sometimes.

Look at my first post in this thread. It clearly refers to the volume rocker. I was fully aware you were talking about the volume rocker the whole time. In the second reply I omitted one word.

Talk about panties in a wad.

 

[blairharrington]

Look at my first post in this thread. It clearly refers to the volume rocker. I was fully aware you were talking about the volume rocker the whole time. In the second reply I omitted one word.

Talk about panties in a wad.

'Panties in a wad.' Go fuck yourself you child.

 

[dawheat]

'Panties in a wad.' Go fuck yourself you child.

lol - I'm not sure why he felt the need to defend the volume rocker. You, like everyone else, are entitled to your opinion.

 

[foghorn67]

'Panties in a wad.' Go fuck yourself you child.

Thanks for proving my point.

 

[Bateluer]

My point is not pedantic. And your insult is completely unnecessary.

The volume rocker on the One is simply too flush with the side. The same can be said of the power/wake button. It will bother some. It won't bother others.

Buttons are important on a smartphone. Not only are the One's buttons too flush with the side, the power/wake button placement is a mistake in the upper left. A phone that large should have their power button on the right side of the device. The One Max made this change.

I can agree, the button placement on the One does kinda suck. I like the feel of the volume rockers, but the power button being on the top puts it in a difficult to reach position. The including Back and Home buttons only is also pretty dumb.

But, all things said, the One is a great phone. It feels like and comfortable in the hand, feels actually thinner than it really is. The battery life is outstanding, and the screen still puts every other phone to shame. And the speakers, oy! The speakers. Front facing alone.

And all this is from a guy that hates HTC Sense with a passion. Sense UI should be chucked in the trash can. HTC has a very good handle on hardware design but face plants on their UI.

 

[zerogear]

Short memories. Making a truck load of low end, budget handsets is what got HTC into trouble in the first place.

Their problem was a lack of market targeting -- if they aimed their low-end budget handsets to the more undeveloped countries, their bottom line would have been much better off. Part of the problem is also HTC's brand recognization -- outside phone enthusiasts, I doubt people would instantly recognize HTC as a brand.

 

[lothar]

Their problem was a lack of market targeting -- if they aimed their low-end budget handsets to the more undeveloped countries, their bottom line would have been much better off. Part of the problem is also HTC's brand recognization -- outside phone enthusiasts, I doubt people would instantly recognize HTC as a brand.

quietly brilliant.

 

[WelshBloke]

Nonsense. SONY has repeatedly said they are, for now, focusing on their strengths (wrt smartphones) and that is in Japan, Europe and Asia. They can afford to considering the breadth of other products and services they have to offer. America will come when their positions in their strongholds become more stable. Also, SONY makes plenty of low-end to mid-range phones that have been popular (again, in Asia, Europe and Japan). IIRC, SONY's smartphone business is growing faster than Samsung, although the scales are different. I have no idea where HTC went wrong but they were making a lot of low-end to mid-range phones but there was no product branding that truly unified all of them. That may be because of their history as an ODM. Hopefully, someone over there rights that ship and they become more successful in the future.

I thought Sonys smartphone business was still declining outside of Japan. It would be nice if they did start doing better though, we need a few more strong Android vendors although the new Chinese vendors seem to be lining up to take that position.

 

[WelshBloke]

Their problem was a lack of market targeting -- if they aimed their low-end budget handsets to the more undeveloped countries, their bottom line would have been much better off. Part of the problem is also HTC's brand recognization -- outside phone enthusiasts, I doubt people would instantly recognize HTC as a brand.

Thier problem was listening to the tech press too much and chasing what they asked for rather than looking at what actually sells.

 

[OBLAMA2009]

htc has the same problem as acer, they have a severely tainted brand. once you make low quality sheet, most people wont buy your stuff even if you start cumming out with decent stuff afterwards. acer and htc would be better off shutting down and renaming themselves so they can start again

 

[Dari]

I thought Sonys smartphone business was still declining outside of Japan. It would be nice if they did start doing better though, we need a few more strong Android vendors although the new Chinese vendors seem to be lining up to take that position.

They're actually doing very well in Europe and Asia, Especially your home country. In America they are nonexistent.

 

[dawheat]

They're actually doing very well in Europe and Asia, Especially your home country. In America they are nonexistent.

Any numbers? The only ones I can dig up are estimates from the Verge:

Q1 2012: 7.4m
Q2 2012: 8.8m
Q3 2012: 8.7m
Q4 2012: 8.1m
Q1 2013: 9.6m (17.5% y/o/y)
Q2 2013: 10m (13.6% y/o/y)

I don't even know percentage wise if that's in line with general industry growth much less Samsung. And it's not a good thing they can't even match % growth when starting with such small numbers comparatively.

 

[ITHURTSWHENIP]

Any numbers? The only ones I can dig up are estimates from the Verge:

Q1 2012: 7.4m
Q2 2012: 8.8m
Q3 2012: 8.7m
Q4 2012: 8.1m
Q1 2013: 9.6m (17.5% y/o/y)
Q2 2013: 10m (13.6% y/o/y)

I don't even know percentage wise if that's in line with general industry growth much less Samsung. And it's not a good thing they can't even match % growth when starting with such small numbers comparatively.

Those are official numbers from quarterly results. However you cant just look at % increases in volume, you also need to look at the average selling price of their phones and their margins. Sony said in the conference call that their ASP has been going up indicating that while they dont move a lot of volume, they are mostly selling flagship phones with high margins

I wouldnt expect a big increase in volume from them. They have said they arent interested in a race to the bottom and will focus only on the high end. They do however need to start taking the US market seriously, its a big market for high margin devices .

 

[techno vice]

This news is really surprising to me and somewhat depressing. Producing great products fails to equate too fiscal success.