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The component shortage that has forced HTC to delay their flagship One handset is the direct result of of the Taiwanese company’s dropping position as a power player in the mobile industry, The Wall Street Journal reports. Component suppliers no longer view HTC as a “tier-one customer” after wavering revenues have forced the Android phone maker to regularly alter order forecasts.
The main issue has been sourcing components for the One’s new UltraPixel camera as well as its metal casing. Despite HTC putting all of their efforts behind their latest handset, suppliers aren’t prioritizing the device or its manufacturer, which has seen more than a year’s worth of declining profits.
The situation has gotten so bad that Peter Chou is putting his own job on the line. The CEO of HTC has reportedly informed other senior executives that he will relinquish his post if the One flops. It makes the name all the more fitting, as this might be HTC’s one last shot at pulling out of a skid that could ultimately doom business.
[via WSJ]
Well this is just sad… hope it never comes to this, in theory if HTC does indeed go under, Google could revive it if they bought it.
Google already bought Motorola, why do they have to buy any unsuccessful phone company?
they make best hardware, HTC helped Android strive back in the days,
No, HTC, does not make the best hardware. HTC is garbage. HTC has crap hardware and software to match it. About the only thing they get right is the camera.
to be fair, their build quality is very good. i know. i owe the g1 and mytouch3g slide. they both held up very nicely and i struck have them
Those are the old days. They put out the thunderbolt which was crap, and the rezound which I heard nothing but complaints from non techy/HTC fanboys. The newer phones may be getting back to their old quality, but I had so many problems with them I’ll never go back.
my evo lasted 2 years through 10s of drops, and my evo LTE has lasted through drops as well. (i used both without cases). I traded into my EvoLTE for a Nexus but there was absolutely nothing wrong with the hardware.
Drops weren’t the problem for my thunderbolt. The power button and volume buttons didn’t last long, and the headphone jack kept messing up. I went through 7 before I got a new phone. I had a coworker that had the same problems and went through 5 before getting a Charge and he was an HTC fan.
I hear the HTC thunderbolt as a standalone device was just plagued with issues. I wouldnt project that one device’s misfortune on an entire company’s product line, even though that is how you lose business as a company. I for one wont buy a toshiba laptop because of the issues I and my mother have been through in the past. I also hear bad things about the Charge. How did that phone treat him?
He loved that POS Charge. I heard similar things about the Rezound. I was even thinking of giving them another shot with the DNA, but small battery and most importantly lack of microSD slot killed it for me. I had actually wrote off Samsung also for their poor reception, but gave them a shot with the Note 2 and glad I did.
Sense>TouchWiz Slcd> Amoled even in the latest iteration Samsung has 33% less pixels and lower ppi than HTC One.
So Apple doesn’t buy HTC and all their patents.
He should have already quit…..
Hire someone who can market your phones.
Your ads suck.
my roomate’s sister-in-law makes $77/hour on the internet. She has been out of a job for 7 months but last month her income was $21126 just working on the internet for a few hours. Read more on Ask25.com
Unfortunately, Peter Chou’s efforts are too little, too late. They were too busy releasing a mass amount of phones that they forgot about quality. Poor quality control and customer service are all factors that contributed to the decline of HTC!
You act like samsung only makes one phone
I’m still really looking forward to this phone… so this makes me a little sad. I’ve gone through two Samsungs since my old HTC Hero, and both suffered from one or more nagging issues… (the latest being my Nexus S bricking itself for simply letting the battery drain too low). So… I’m back to using my old Hero till this one releases. My wife has had an Evo LTE for a while now and loves it.
Hmm, #thenextbigflop ?
As an ex-HTC user, I would really hate to see them go. Its always good to see options on Android and without HTC, that means only Samsung or Motorola would have my services. LG can go sit in a corner. I really hope the HTC One is successful in bringing this company back.
“lg can go sit in a corner” lel’d
Laughed Excessively Loud?
I don’t always “lol” But when i do I do it excessively….
lol LG is making bad ass phones recently, dont shun them so easily
That LG UI and the lack of updates turns me off. Besides, ripping off Samsung as blatantly as their doing really ticks me off.
Really? Like Samsung didn’t blatantly rip off Apple on the initial Galaxy S phones. Remember, Google even warned them about that.
But it’s so easy to copy the iPhone design because it’s bland.
HTC lost me as a customer years ago. Absolutely poor quality workmanship. They never update there devices in a timely manner. And there idea of “unlocking” there devices is a disgrace. I’ll stick to my nexus thank you.
Remember, HTC made the first Nexus, the Nexus One. And it was a beaut!
Who downvoted this post!? They must be shot at sunset. I’m still waiting for HTC to make the next Nexus. That phone was SO COOL. =.D
That was the ONLY phone I ever had without a case. Just a full body shield.
I was actually also going go with the HTC One after reading that the custom ROM dev community will be giving the S4 a miss… Looks like Nexus 5 will be the way to go.
You can still go for the One… XDA seems to take a liking to it, so it’ll have a lot of support. Nexus 5 probably won’t be released until the Christmas holiday, and I can’t wait that long!
:P
Seemed a little cocky the other day on twitter. Especially considering Sammy isn’t failing…
Not looking good for HTC.
Fuuuuuuuuuuuuu Apple.
Hope the One doesn’t turn out to be a flop… I’m a big HTC fan, and to see the company hurting like this worries me about the future of Android phones… Although Samsung and LG makes decent devices, if the future consists of glossy plastic phones from Samsung and LG, I’d be disappointed.
The Optimus G, G Pro and Nexus 4 are far from glossy plastic. I can’t speak specifically for the white variants of those phones but the black variants are a very nice solid matte plastic on those devices. Also lets keep in mind glass and metal do not absorb shock/scratches as well as plastic so plastic is still great to use unless we are going to see more rubber fittings and bushings toward the edges of phones to start absorbing shock somewhat.
But… It’s an LG… Lol
Although I think LG has okay devices (spec wise), they aren’t really the best in design, and their UI isn’t the best out there. I don’t really drop my phones, but I’m sure after I put on a case on a metal/aluminum/glass phone, it wouldn’t shatter or anything
I consider the LG UI to be one of the better ones out there, after Motorola it is the closest to stock Android. Much less cluttered than TouchWiz.
So disappointed in this news. I had planned on getting the HTC One and have the money already set aside for its purchase. But my current HTC phone is hanging on by a thread and I’ve delayed my purchase of a replacement as long as possible and it affects my work. So I guess I’m going to order the Nexus 4 now instead. This will be my first non-HTC Android purchase..I was so thrilled with the One at its announcement but the delay in availability is absolutely mind-boggling.
I doubt US markets will see much of a delay compared to other markets overseas. But the delay is certainly disappointing.
Yeah, I would have jumped on the Nexus 4 immediately if it had come to Sprint. I just wish they’d give us a release date. Right now all I know is it should be before April 26 based on the updated trade-in terms.
Beware of one thing : the Nexus 4 is a 300$ phone, not a high end one. If you can afford one or another big guy, don’t go with the N4.
Yeah, I’m not switching carriers for it, so I’m waiting on the HTC. :)
What isn’t high end about the Nexus 4? It has a great display, 2GB RAM, unlocked, and a large screen. One thing I can think of is the price. I would definitely go with a Nexus phone because of updates. The HTC One looks like an awesome phone, but when will it get Key Lime Pie? I can almost guarantee you the Nexus 4 will have it months before the HTC One.
Well, I’m currently returning my N4 back because of :
– cheap thermal dissipation (like very very cheap, no need to run 10 benchmarks in a row to see it throttle down)
– cheap RAM and Flash storage (poor performances for a S4 Pro, low transfer rates via USB2)
– cheap screen (visible touch layer circuitry, bad touch sensitivity, washed out colors, poor max brightness, high reflectance…)
– assembly issues (GPS antenna not working in mine)
– cheap accessories
– terrible loudspeaker and camera
– bad battery life
– buggy experience (up to 4minutes to boot up sometimes, two spontaneous reboots)
It’s overal not bad for a 300$ device, but it surely isn’t worth any more. I made a mistake thinking I would get a top of the line phone at a bargain price.
I’m seriously thinking about trying an iPhone right now (I own an ipad but never had an iPhone). It’s the only high end phone that gets OS upgrades faster than the Nexus line.
I can’t tell if you’re trolling. The only thing that’s believable is the loudspeaker and camera issue (maybe). As for everything else, the N4 has some downsides but what you listed isn’t it. Perhaps you just had a faulty model or something but I still think you’re trolling.
I’m not trolling and I’m the man being upset at the moment.
Do you have yourself a Nexus 4 ? I think there is a distortion between the hopes for the devices and the actual quality of it. Most of the issues I have on mine are well known and related (just Google them !). I may have a sub-par unit but hell, this is not even acceptable, even at this price.
There is something deeply wrong in the way Google tasked LG for building the device and it certainly explains the difficulty they face to put it to the market.
You seem sincere so I guess it must have been a sub-par unit since those certainly aren’t common issues, this the first time i’ve read about it. Try and get it replaced with another model.
Most of the issues I had are sadly quite common and I even didn’t have all the ones inventoried :
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2048027
I’m certainly not getting it replaced by another one with same or more issues !
It’s the end of the road for me about the Nexus 4. Don’t want to struggle (carrying a reliable and flawless smartphone is very important to me for my every day personal/work use, something my S2 has achieved for two year now).
If you get a new one odds are that you won’t have issues ;) A few people’s experience with faulty models isn’t representative of the Nexus 4, especially given that sample size.
Except when :
– sample size is quite small
– there are not one or two but more than a dozen issues
– some “issues” are in fact characteristics of the device (heating, touch sensitivity, battery life, bad camera, bad speaker, bad performances for a S4Pro. Those are not faulty parts, they are just BADLY designed/built by purpose).
It doesn’t have bad performance, it is one of the best performing smartphones out right now. That sample size is way too small to even be statistically significant, if you really think every N4 is “designed/built” like yours then plenty more people would be complaining. Except it’s just a small number.
Maybe. Maybe it’s not the Android device I want after all. Maybe it’s not even that I want another Android device.
I’m placing the order right now for an iPhone 5 to be sure of that. I’m very curious about it and I can keep on using my Google account for most of the services (tried and tested on the iPad) so I won’t loose ecosystem functionality. If it’s bad again, I’ll consider myself as definitely cursed :-D and will get back to my Nokia 3310.
You won’t be disappointed by the Nexus 4. Just make sure you get a bumper or a case. They’re slippery!
I’m with you. My first gen Evo just rebooted for no apparent reason. But that’s not a new development. lol
Competition is always good so I hope they pull through.
I’m getting sick of this bs.. I’ve been waiting and I’m on the verge of just getting a different phone.
They should really new working allot harder to be getting their flagship out. Not accounting for new technology beforehand is a serious oversight. The first next gen flagship phone to drop is gonna have a good advantage. They set a release date that they are probably not gonna meet. I almost hope they nexus 5 just comes out from no where and destroys every manufacturers hopes and dreams.