That’s it folks. HTC has suspended trading on the market. Tomorrow they will announce Google’s take over.
Google will be acquiring the HTC cell phone division, but HTC will retain the Vive VR brand.
It’s been a pleasure having HTC phones. Sad to see them go.
Sad? Not at all. They deserve this.
For a tech company HTC was just awful at thinking outside the box. Those damn old ass Taiwanese backwards minded leadership in the company just was so awful. They can’t market shit and messed up the beats deal that Apple later took from them.
Soon the only thing left of HTC will be in case studies of how to fuck things up at every chance when they had the opportunity to compete with Samsung and Apple.
Google already owns Motorola. Cant see what technology outside of Vive that Google would want or need. Surprised Foxconn didnt buy, just for the brand name.
HTC have been considered a mess for so long and I dont see much money to be made in the handset market for much longer. Cheap phones do what 99% of consumers need and there is little incentive to reguarly change them anymore. The only money to be made is at the high end, which is why iPhone have gone with a premium model.
Imagine they will be sacking a lot of the Taiwanese workers sitting around doing overtime and trying to look busy.
I’ve been a loyal HTC customer since the HTC 7. Their phones are solid. Fantastic hardware. Decent software and lead the pack with quality sound. The U11, their most recent, is a fantastic high end phone.
HTCs downfall was poor marketing and giving up on their front facing speakers.
The Vive won’t last long. I’m surprised Google didn’t buy out Vive.
No, Google sold Motorola to Lenovo.
But why buy an OEM and then sell it for half the price and then buy a similar company for full price? Madness
exactly, they made good phones. But they just refused to get how consumers purchase phones.
I’m still baffled how you can have the hottest brand beats by dre and not let them do what they do best, which is market. Beats doesn’t have the best sounds for the price but they did have the coolest headphones. How did they not let beats do their thing, beats actually asked to buy back their shares when they just couldn’t work with HTC.
Yeah, HTC really screwed themselves over with piss poor marketing. They had a lot of good going for them. People were just saturated by Samsung’s marketing Goliath and Apple’s loyal fan base.
HTC was the first Android phone.
The first front facing speakers.
The first all metal nobody build.
The first to use beats.
The first squeezable phone.
And now Google is getting that treasure chest. I hope they put it to good use with their Pixel phones.
HTC is behind (in sales) in it’s home market, ASUS is better value (I just got newest one, had to wait as supply is short), and also see now HonHai phones (SHARP brand) which seems will surpass HTC here in Taiwan. It is sad story, but it is business and you have make a product that people want.
Asus/ZenFone is selling really well. They are third place in sales after Apple and Samsung
HonHai/Foxconn have two brands- Sharp and inFocus
I don’t get why the U11 did not sell well here.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with it. Its camera blew all other brands out of the water, including the Pixel.
I’m looking forward to see what Google will do with HTCs RandD.
Normal consumers dont make decisions based on features.
Why?? $$. Price. ASUS or new Sharp phones are much cheaper. Mine was NT$7,000 online/PC Home (15% less than shops), U11 is quite a bit more, no value for the price.
Right, “normal” consumers are just sheep.
I’d replace “normal” with “average”.
So many people I know say Apple is the best, but can never tell me why. Same with Samsung owners.
The only answer I get is “everybody has one so it must be good”
Rolling my eyes
Can’t argue with that.
The U11 is expensive.
But you are getting the best of the best.
A flagship phone with solid hardware and innovative features.
I don’t agree that people don’t buy phones for features. They do. Look at Samsung with its wrap around screen. A total Gimmick. But it worked. People bought it up.
Our HTC phones sucked. Pig slow, and buttons like the restart button were unresponsive after a while. Camera lenses were covered with soft, easily scratched plastic, and only a fraction of the advertised memory was actually available. An utter waste of $5k. We don’t want fancy features. We just want a quick, reliable, durable and affordable phone. What brand or product should we be looking at?
HTC’s CEO offended a lot of people when she repeatedly emphasised that they were a Chinese phone company.
They tried to suck up to China and ended up losing in both markets. It’s actually hilarious.
China promised them that they would be treated like a Chinese firm in China…but of course they didn’t and they shot themselves in the foot.