HTC Forecast is Gloomy

[cereal killer]

Amidst poor Q4 numbers HTC is predicting further drops in sales and profit margins amid strong competition. For the fourth quarter, HTC said it earned $369 million, or 44 cents per share, on revenue of $3.42 billion dollars. That’s a revenue drop of more than 2% from a year earlier. The bad news doesn't get any better neither. All Things D goes on to say that HTC reports even more trouble ahead;

The company forecast that, for the current quarter, sales will drop to between 65 billion and 70 billion Taiwanese dollars, with gross margins falling to 25 percent from last quarter’s 27 percent. HTC said it expects the dip in margins to be temporary.

CEO Peter Chou put everything in perspective by saying “While short term performance may not meet the results as expected, we have gained further experience and advancement in the areas of brand management and product innovation. These fundamental strengths and the groundwork we have laid will take us into 2012 with a renewed focus and determination.”

With HTC focusing on fewer devices, and putting quality and innovation at the forefront, 2012 should prove to be a better and more profitable year.

Source: AllthingsD

 

[SquireSCA]

Wow, they are starting to get it... Instead of releasing a dozen half baked buggy phones and trying to fixed them while you create the next dozen buggy phones, they are instead going to try and release a few phones that actually work as promised?

Good for them. Let's see if they, and others, have finally seen the light.

If Apple can make billions selling the same stupid phone over and over again, HTC should so well selling a few select phones that are innovative, push the envelop and work properly...

 

[Quicksilver7714]

Actually HTC only released 4 phones on Verizon last year; the Thunderbolt, Incredible 2, Rhyme and Rezound. That's not many if you ask me.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

 

[johnomaz]

Actually HTC only released 4 phones on Verizon last year; the Thunderbolt, Incredible 2, Rhyme and Rezound. That's not many if you ask me.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

Agreed and sadly, they weren't the best phones. The Thunderbolt was quite lackluster. It sold, but then dropped off. My wife has one and though shes fine with it, I don't really like it. The Rhyme I haven't heard anything about since it was released. the DI2 was ok and the Rezound isn't taking off like I thought it would. HTC has an issue with releasing updates within a decent amount of time.

 

[Quicksilver7714]

I think after the fiasco with the Tbolt. HTC had a lot of unhappy customers. No updates, updates that made things worse and horrible battery life.

I had a Tbolt for a month but returned it due to crappie battery life ans no support with in the month. It totally turned me off to Buying another HTC phone for a while.

On the sprint side of things I don't think the EVO 3D fared any better. 3D is such a gimmick.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

 

[SquireSCA]

Only 4 phones on VZW, but what about the others?

The whole industry is messed up. Every carrier wants their own version, then they go and make the phone even worse by putting on all of their shoddy crap...

 

[pc747]

I think after the fiasco with the Tbolt. HTC had a lot of unhappy customers. No updates, updates that made things worse and horrible battery life.

I had a Tbolt for a month but returned it due to crappie battery life ans no support with in the month. It totally turned me off to Buying another HTC phone for a while.

On the sprint side of things I don't think the EVO 3D fared any better. 3D is such a gimmick.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

The thunderbolt really hurt htc's credibility. Even though the rezound is a better phone than its getting credit for people were burnt by the thunderbolt and refuse to trust motorola again.

 

[JSM9872]

Could not agree more with the concept that the T-Bolt left a bad taste in user's mouths. I have never used one personally but having to deal with the one my GF owned I can certainly see it. I don't think they make bad devices though so we shall have to see how this year goes for them.

 

[tjk629]

Actually HTC only released 4 phones on Verizon last year; the Thunderbolt, Incredible 2, Rhyme and Rezound. That's not many if you ask me.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

About each of the major carriers had 4 HTC android phones released last year.

Overall if you look at them most of them are no different from the other.

For example the Rhyme and Inc 2 are essentially the same phone, at the same price, and launched shortly around the same time. HTC should have just saved the money, and made a plum Inc. 2 with an accessory bundle. T-Mobile had a bunch of the "same" HTC phones as well.

Then you had their tablet which I don't believe did well at all.

 

[tommyz]

Thanks to my purchase of the Thunderbolt, I will not get another HTC phone again. Granted the 4G was nice and fast, but I'm not sure that makes up for the shortcomings of the TB. There are still things that haven't been fixed.
I'm still waiting on the fix for the Bluetooth issue I've brought up many times. Now I find the birthdays show a day later when you go to your contacts.

I have to wait until Dec. of this year before I can exchange my phone under contract. And it will not be a HTC.

 

[kodiak799]

Apple is the only one with the heft to dictate to the carriers. Otherwise, at least in the US, they all want exclusive models. I think this is partly motivated by carriers wanting to lock people into contracts (i.e., if the same phone is on multiple carriers, easier to jump ship).

Anyway, as for HTC the Rezound was an excellent phone. They failed miserably in the marketing.

 

[2001400ex]

Thanks to my purchase of the Thunderbolt, I will not get another HTC phone again. Granted the 4G was nice and fast, but I'm not sure that makes up for the shortcomings of the TB. There are still things that haven't been fixed.
I'm still waiting on the fix for the Bluetooth issue I've brought up many times. Now I find the birthdays show a day later when you go to your contacts.

I have to wait until Dec. of this year before I can exchange my phone under contract. And it will not be a HTC.

Yeah, all the manufacturers go through good and bad. Moto was drying up, released a poor Bionic, then struck gold with the Razr. Samsung missed with their first 4g phone, can't think of the name now. But then struck gold with the Nexus and the contract with Google. Unfortunately, its about marketing. You look at the Nexus, the Rezound, and the Razr, they all have their good and bad points. In fact, the items that mean the most to me, the Rezound is probably the best one. (until the Razr Maxx that is)

I bought my Tbolt on launch and had my ups and downs with it. I can't upgrade until November this year, and I will choose from the Rezound 2, Maxx 2 or Nexus 2, depending on which one makes the most strides to making the phone what it should be. No reason to single HTC out now. Who knows, LG might continue their leap forward and do something revolutionary by then. Hopefully they introduce VOIP with that generation.

 

[nikecar]

I like my incredible 2.

Sent from someplace, and with something that you need not worry about.

 

[wolstonc]

The Inc 2 was the only all around decent phone they released, and it wasn't 4g. People expected a lot after the Inc 1 and how it always got the best updates, and how the evo became sprints flagship phone with great sales. But they burnt vzw customers with the tbolt, and followed up the evo, which many considered the next iPhone, with a gimmicky 3d phone. They dropped the ball in a major way on both networks.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using DroidForums

 

[WildcatRudy]

I rooted and put a Liquid Smooth Gingerbread ROM on the TBolt (Android 2.3.7) and it hasn't given me many problems. The only thing I have issue with is the 4G; we have it in our area, but can't get it for about a mile radius of the house (despite a strong cell signal). Strangely if I head southeast by a mile and a half, out by the lake, I get 4G just fine. But in Indianapolis, I was getting 15Mbps/6Mbps speeds inside the hotel I stayed at. So I can't really blame the TBolt because Verizon's 4G service is spotty.

I got a slightly larger battery (fits in the standard battery door), and I rarely run 4G as I'm on WiFi most places I go, so battery life is usually quite good. Once you remove the HTC bloatware, surprisingly (or not ), the whole phone runs so much better and gets longer battery life. Thing is, most users will never touch the ROM or root the phone, so they get the bum deal and don't like the TBolt.

Short version--it's a solid phone, but it takes a bit of work to get it to that point; HTC needs to create an ideal "out of the box" experience for Joe Consumer, and I don't think they're at that point yet.

I think I'd rather own a crappy, loaded up TBolt over an apple i(diot)phone any day of the week...