Chang Chialin, chief financial officer for HTC, told Bloomberg Thursday than the coming year is looking much more promising that the dismal 2013 HTC recorded.
Just how bad was it? HTC’s sales dropped 30 percent in 2013 and the company’s shares fell a whopping 53 percent, reporting its first annual net loss ever.
Chialin said the success of HTC’s One smartphone, as well as a renewed marketing push could help the company turn things around. He admitted that HTC had not paid enough attention to marketing, which ultimately hurt sales of the HTC One, which received rave reviews.
HTC lost 1.4 percent of its U.S. market share in the three-month period ending in December, falling to just 5.7 percent of the total pie, according to ComScore.
Apple ranked as the top OEM with 41.8 percent of U.S. smartphone subscribers, up 1.2 percentage points from September. Meanwhile, Samsung ranked second with 26.1 percent market share, up 1.2 percentage points, followed by Motorola with 6.7 percent, and LG with 6.6 percent.
Don’t expect HTC to expand its product line beyond smartphones anytime soon. Chialin said that while HTC has considered wearables for some time now, the company hasn’t figured out how to manage battery life and “LCD light problems” just yet.
Filed Under: Devices
