HTC cutting back on smartphones in 2012 – too many products
After announcing loses in the later part of 2011, HTC UK’s Phil Robertson agreed that the Taiwanese phone manufacturer overwhelmed the market with too many products. He said that HTC would cut back on the amount of smartphones it launches, both Android such as the Sensation XE and XL and Windows Phones such as the Titan. Instead, the company will put a larger emphasis on hero devices.
According to Roberts, “We have to get back to focusing on what made us great – amazing hardware and a great customer experience.
“We ended 2011 with far more products than we started out with. We tried to do too much.
“So 2012 is about giving our customers something special. We need to make sure we do not go so far down the line that we segment our products by launching lots of different SKUs.”
This means that HTC will be focusing more on smartphones rather than competing in the tablet market against other Android slates and Apple’s iPad. This also means that HTC is likely to release fewer top of the line handsets. The dual-core HTC Ville and the quad-core HTC Edge are likely among HTC’s high-end lineup, which are expected to be unveiled at MWC in Barcelona next month. Other than that, expect a lower volume of releases from HTC.
