HTC's Financials are Getting Worse; Things Look Very Grim and Investors are Bailing

[jtpowell]

What did people know the HTC Thunderbolt as? The Droid Thunderbolt. What did people know the Rezound as? Nothing, because it was horribly marketed. They have a lot of love from the modding community, but if I asked the average person what they think of HTC phones they probably couldn't name a single one. Sad that they've both failed there, as well as upsetting some fans with lackluster update timetables and locked bootloaders when they were promised to be delivered unlocked.

Same for the Incredible it's a Droid Incredible not an HTC Incredible. I think HTC has too many dang models. We all know how many models of the iPhone Apple releases at any one time. You can say what you want about Apple and their products but it's sort of been working for them. I really loved my Incredible and at the time best phone I ever had until I started getting out of memory errors. The fix hard reset your device. I don't think so Tim.

1. Simplify the product line even make it consistent across carriers. Apple seems to have been able to do that. Just had another local user ditch their HTC Evo for an iPhone same carrier.
2. Rebrand is it and HTC _____ or a Droid _____. If the consumer doesn't know or care they won't on the next purchase either.
3. Customer support and customer experience. If it's bad don't expect them to come back.

[Aximtreo]

Sorry to see this news. HTC makes great hardware; more reliable than any I have owned. Hope they survive.

[acousticshade]

Slow sales of the Rezound, INC 2 and the One X are what is currently slowly killing HTC. All are excellent phones and are equal to or better than their competitors products. Most reviewers put the One X and the S3 neck & neck for most applications. But you see 1 HTC ad for every 8 Samsung ads & the ads are not at all compelling. Plus Big Red does not like HTC for some reason. I almost wanted to scream at some of the salespeople to shut up about the stupid RAZR over the winter and then come to find out they were not even stocking the Rezound! Either someone at HTC ticked off Verizon or they were seriously in bed with Moto (or both). It's too bad since the Gnex and the Rezound were better phones with better specs and they really got shafted.

Wonder how much Apples lawsuits have played into this as well.

[nikecar]

I had an issue with my phone and they had Rezounds as we tried swapping the battery.

[zomnomnombie]

I think they should embrace the mod community completely. It might help them in the short term while they work out a good broad market strategy.

They should drop Sense UI, update their phones and stock unlock the bootloader. The mod community could buoy them for a short while. Since the other manufacturers are just passively embracing it, Samsung. Or actively rejecting it, Motorola.

[MissionImprobable]

The modding community isn't going to save them. Even if we made up 10% of buyers that wouldn't be enough to keep them afloat. They need to find a way to appeal to a lot more than just those of us who root and rom.

[zomnomnombie]

That's why I said a short term solution. They are most definitely not going to sell any great number of phones with the GS3, iPhone 5 in October and Motorola RAZR HD shortly after that.

They need something to stay alive until they can make something good for the masses. Because the what they have now is obviously not working.

For full disclosure sake, I generally do not root and never ROM. Nor do I like HTC phones. But I do like competition.

[trestevenson]

Plus Big Red does not like HTC for some reason. I almost wanted to scream at some of the salespeople to shut up about the stupid RAZR over the winter and then come to find out they were not even stocking the Rezound! Either someone at HTC ticked off Verizon or they were seriously in bed with Moto (or both).

I've wondered if Verizon doesn't push HTC phones as much as the other manufacturers simply because they offer a bootloader unlock tool via HTCdev. Most of this community is aware of how much VZW frowns on unlocked bootloaders. I'm sure the lawsuits from Apple haven't helped either, but I don't know how much of a negative impact that has had on the situation.

I will agree that HTC's marketing has been pretty craptastic, although the commercials for the original Incredible were pretty much on par with the RAZR commercials of this year. Was the thin-ness of the latter really that much of a selling point? I'd like to give the average consumer more credit than that.

I'm not counting out HTC just yet, however. If Apple could pull their company from the brink of bankruptcy to the monolith that it is today, it's possible (even if unlikely) that HTC could do the same. We'll just have to keep watch and see how all of this plays out. Hopefully their investment in foreign markets helps them generate the needed revenue. I'd hate to see this company removed from the Android landscape, even if I'm not the biggest fan of their products.

[tjk629]

I've wondered if Verizon doesn't push HTC phones as much as the other manufacturers simply because they offer a bootloader unlock tool via HTCdev. Most of this community is aware of how much VZW frowns on unlocked bootloaders. I'm sure the lawsuits from Apple haven't helped either, but I don't know how much of a negative impact that has had on the situation.

It's because it wasn't flagship. I'm sure last year they were pushing Thunderbolts because it was their only LTE device, and the first Incredible.

The ReZound was one of vzws top three android phones this past winter, but Verizon has always pushed Motorola devices. Probably some deal they have with Motorola. I mean Motorola really doesn't have any phones on the carriers, and if they do it's not to the level of Verizon.

Though, Verizon did really push the Rhyme. For whatever reason.

Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF300T using Droid Forums

[geoff5093]

I love my Thunderbolt, and the One X is amazing, they just can't market a phone to save themselves.