The news has come out today that HTC’s mobile phone sales have fallen 20% compared last year, and profits are way down too. On the face of it, this is really odd given that the smartphone market is still growing at a massive rate, HTC are a significant player in that market, and don’t produce any non-smart “feature” phones.
HTC have also gone down the sensible route of simplifying their product line up – they still sell lots of varieties of phones, but if you visit the HTC UK website, you see just 5 phones – the Sensation, Sensation XL, Sensation XE, and Titan (their new Windows Phone 7 device), and Rhyme.
So why are HTC sales down so much?
Personally, I think it’s a pretty simple one – fashion.
No one can dispute that the iPhone sets the trends in mobile phones, and even Samsung might admit that they looked at a couple of iPhone 4’s before the Galaxy S2 was launched, but HTC have stuck to their rounded plastic look. That rounded look reminds people of the iPhone 3G, launched back in 2008, and frankly it looks old now compared to the iPhone 4S.
In a world where your phone is as much a part of your image as your watch or clothes, looking like a 2008 Apple product in 2012 is simply not going to work, however cool your headphones are.
for me the app memory bug was too much. it kept telling me i couldn’t install more apps. so i have a samsung nexus now
The joy of HTC Sense filling up the already limited memory 🙂
These days I run a custom ROM (called Oxygen) without Sense in it, so there’s lots more available memory for apps.
In Android land, it’s all about Samsung! Speaking as an HTC phone owner and a Samsung (ICS) tablet owner, Samsung’s super-svelte devices are captivating to the more average consumer (i.e. non-geek).
Android is expanding faster, but Samsung is having a fatter slice of the pie – HTC were smart being first and fast on the bandwagon but I think Samsung are set to clear up.