HTC To Emphasize Mid-Tier Smartphones After Declines

Moving to the high end of the smartphone market is never easy. Many manufacturers that have attempted to make a dent in the high end have found it impossible when faced with competition from Samsung and Apple. Surprisingly, the HTC One has remained one of the best premium phones for the past year and some reviews have placed it above equivalent devices from Samsung. While the phone may still be popular, profit margins from the device were not enough to sustain HTC and the company now plans to return to mid-range devices.

HTC is getting ready to release its next flagship device, the M8, which will take over the One's flagship position. Moving forward, however, HTC has announced it will be focusing on mid-range devices in order to recoup the losses that it suffered during its move on the high end of the market.

A Bad Record

During the past 27 months, HTC has repeatedly come back with falling revenues and decreases in market share around the world. Even though the One has been an immensely successful Android smartphone, HTC has concluded it focused too heavily on its one high-end device, which was not enough to sustain the company.

HTC's $10.2 million net profit in the fourth quarter was barely enough to avoid another quarterly loss. Shortly after HTC released the One, it reported the first quarterly loss in the company's history. While Samsung was able to pull out $9.4 billion in profits during Q3 2013, HTC was stuck with a $101 million loss.

Marketing Issues

HTC Chairwoman Cher Wang has recognized that many of the issues that the company encountered during 2013 were the result of marketing mistakes. With the success of the HTC One, the company decided to focus too much on marketing its flagship while moving away from...