HTC cut their revenue forecasts by nearly 23% today as their huge growth finally came to an end. Strong competition is now hampering the company. They also blame…
(The) global macroeconomic downturn and market competition, the assumptions of 2011 Q4 financial forecast provided earlier are no longer applicable.
Growth, according to HTC, will return in the first half of 2012.
Link – bloomberg.com
They can thank Samsung for most of this. The fact that HTC has to rely on other companies for screen tech will probably hamper sales for quite some time.They will have to shell out the big bucks to have Samsung or Lg provide the latest tech. I know that super amoled plus has me hooked!
I would also agree with Joe, Samsung might have something to do with it. I know quite a few S II’s that are floating about that recently replaced HTC Handsets. I’m also jumping the HTC ship I have crewed for the past 5 years in favour of the Note. Even the Mrs, who was going to get her first smartphone this year and looked at HTC’s with me has settled on the Galaxy Ace instead of the Wildfire!
They seem to be a victim of thier own success; too many handsets too soon and a tired skin. (new) people want fresh, I think HTC have forgotten this.
I’d like to think its because customers are rejecting Sense but it’s like more to do with the Galaxy S2 kicking serious ass.
My Twitter stream is full of Geeks who’ve abandoned HTC because of late updates and locked bootloaders.
below average battery life, average screens, outdated design, Senseless bloatware, lack of sense for consumer needs… yeah this 23% cut is logical consequence!
Ditto other comments, both the wife and I are jumping ship to the Samsung bandwagon on our next phone renewals (mine in a couple of weeks, hers in a couple of months).
HTC are rapidly falling in to the same problems as Nokia did; not innovating their basic design enough. They were successful and generally in business once you find success you keep doing it; but what’s successful in Mobile telephony specifically is continual advancement and continued stirring of the pot, lots of new things. I got bored of Sense, reflashed my phone ages ago to dump it and couldn’t see going back to it. I don’t like the battery life on HTC phones, GS2 looks much better in that respect.
My desire also has a problem with running Bluetooth and WiFi at the same time reliably (when WiFi disconnects and reconnects, it kills the bluetooth connections that are active), which has been a major pain too.
Matt.