July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Last week, HTC CEO Peter Chou said his company had seen the worst of its struggles. After taking a look at HTC’s fourth quarter 2012 results, we can only hope he’s right.

HTC reported a net profit of $34.4 million during the quarter — a steep 91 percent drop from the same period last year and the company’s lowest level since 2006.

Sales were similarly bad. HTC’s revenues dropped 41 percent to $2.69 billion, signaling its biggest, most pressing issue: People really aren’t interested in buying its phones.

As we pointed out last week, this isn’t a fault of the phones themselves but of HTC’s inability to market them. And HTC knows it. “Our competitors were too strong and very resourceful, pouring in lots of money into marketing. We haven’t done enough on the marketing front,” Chou told The Wall Street Journal on Friday.

Chou’s comments were, of course, a clear warning to investors that HTC’s earnings would be pretty bad this time around. And while Chou is confident that 2013 will be a better year for the Taiwanese company, so far there isn’t much evidence to support that — at least from the sales and marketshare standpoint.

One thing that HTC does have going for it, however, is its patent deal with Apple. Shipments of its One X and Evo 4G LTE were delayed last year over suspected patent infringement, which certainly didn’t help sales of the devices. HTC’s deal with Apple ensures that a similar delay won’t happen again.

“HTC is pleased to have resolved its dispute with Apple, so HTC can focus on innovation instead of litigation,” said Peter Chou about the deal in November.

Maybe it’s innovation that will help turn HTC around in 2013.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

2012 was an awful year for HTC. Not only did the company report some its worst earnings ever, but it also watched helplessly as Apple and Samsung ate away at its smartphone marketshare. The descent hasn’t been pretty.

So how does HTC plan to turn things around? According to CEO Peter Chou, lots and lots of marketing.

“Our competitors were too strong and very resourceful, pouring in lots of money into marketing. We haven’t done enough on the marketing front,” Chou told The Wall Street Journal.

Essentially, the HTC of the future will go from being “quietly brilliant” to “talkatively brilliant” — a change that’s been a long time coming.

What’s most worrying about HTC’s troubles is just how unwarranted they are. Looking back at some of the devices the company announced last year — the One S, Droid DNA, and Windows Phone-running 8X — it’s clear that HTC knows how to create attractive, well-designed products.

But it’s not the products that have been the problem. Instead, HTC’s biggest rub has been in its failure to convince consumers to go for its devices over those of the competition. And that’s clearly a failure in marketing. (Seriously — when’s the last time you saw a HTC ad on television?)

But in his interview with the Wall Street Journal, Chou also points to another one of HTC’s faults: a lack of prescience and flexibility. The smartphone market changes fast, and HTC has done a pretty poor job of keeping up. How else can you explain its tragic fall from the top of the smartphone market to its most bitter bottom?

Chou said that the new HTC will be better equipped to respond quickly to the smartphone market’s rapid changes. “We are being more flexible now. We are constantly fine-tuning our sales plans and position in various markets,” Chou said.