By 
An interesting expose of sorts coming from The Verge who posted an article about HTC and the still very rocky road they have ahead of them. This, after numerous higher-level departures from within the company — the most recent being HTC’s Chief Product Officer — show the cellphone manufacturer is once again on shaky ground and fighting, not just to keep the HTC One a success, but to keep from imploding as well.
Kouji Kodera was the man responsible for HTC’s overall product strategy and is just one of few departures the company has been faced with over the past 3 months that include HTC’s vice president of global communications, global retail marketing manager, director of digital marketing, and finally their product strategy manger who might be the most disgruntled out of the bunch, saying via his Twitter:
“To all my friends still at @HTC – just quit. leave now. it’s tough to do, but you’ll be so much happier, I swear.”
Pretty strong advice from someone who obviously had trouble with the company. While I personally know of a few HTC employees who have been scalped and now currently work for Samsung, that doesn’t seem to be the case in the above instances. These execs reportedly left for greener pastures, making to move over to big named companies like AT&T, Skype, and Microsoft — not Samsung.
Rumors of the HTC First being a complete flop (despite a few tech bloggers making it their go-to device after it was discovered to run stock Android) isn’t exactly helping matters. The device was rumored to have been discontinued after failing to meet sales expectations and while the HTC One still has a chance to be the company’s break-out hit, the well documented manufacturing delays may have kept HTC from striking while the iron was still hot.
When compared to heavy weights like Samsung who’s marketing budget outweighs HTC’s entire profits, HTC definitely has a long way to go before they can ever hope to gain that number 1 spot. The Samsung Galaxy S4 — HTC One’s biggest rival — was said to hit around 10 million in sales globally, with Korean manufacturer having little trouble keeping up with strong demand.
But it hasn’t been all bad news for HTC. The HTC One’s production is said to be in full swing, churning out arguably one of the best Android devices to date. Make no mistake, HTC has a lot riding on the One’s success. You may remember before the One launched, HTC’s own CEO Peter Chou was quoted as saying he’d step down if the One wasn’t a success. Something tells me Mr. Chou will be safe in his corner office (for now). And really, who knows. It’s entirely possible these departures could work out for the better, especially if HTC can find more talented replacements.
I guess what I’m failing to understand is whether or not a cellphone manufacturer needs to sell 10 million devices to keep from going belly up? Is it possible that an underdog like HTC could simply rest comfortably in the #3 or 4 spot? SD cards and removable batteries aside, I think we can all agree that Android needs manufactures like HTC to keep other OEM’s on their toes and continue to push smartphone design forward. Lest we end up with another Galaxy S twin.
HTC…… Here is where you lost me and the other millions……. NOT HAVING A REMOVABLE BATTERY AND NOT HAVING A MICRO SD CARD…… you’re dumb asses and out of touch with your customers.
Stahp.
I’m honestly getting sick of people thinking that a removable battery and an micro SD card slot is the reason why HTC hasn’t been doing well compared to Samsung. For me, and everyone I know, 32 gbs is definitely enough for all your storage needs on a phone. Also, the battery life on the HTC One is actually really good (10-14 hours is what I’m getting), for it being only 2300 mAH. This is coming from someone who owns a HTC One.
Specs is not the reason why HTC hasn’t been doing so hot. I blame the marketing. When I was going to buy the HTC One, everyone looking to buy a new phone never heard of the HTC One before; instead, they heard of the Note 2 and the Galaxy S3/S4. HTC suffered with marketing in the past where Samsung excelled, so HTC has to get their names out to the consumer crowd.
If HTC does go bankrupt, it’s a very sad day for Android, because I would literally hate having Samsung as one of the only comparable Android manufacturers. I welcome the idea of the Chief Product Officer and the rest of the people who left, because it allows for HTC to get real people to help get HTC to the position and market share that they deserve.
The product is fantastic, the marketing, a fail.
Well put. This phone is a thing of beauty. The last phone I had with a plastic battery cover was my Atrix. Guess what? The cover had fractures and cracks everywhere. Know how many times I replaced the battery? 0.
just because you are clumsy doesn’t mean anything, if you treat the HTC One that way you won’t have cracks but you will have dents and scrapes. And li-ion batteries degrade over time, even if they don’t fail. Removable battery doesn’t matter if you are buying a new phone every year, if you keep it for 1.5 years to 2 it’s worth it to replace them.
I thought someone had done some testing to see what types of scratches would happen to the HTC One.
And FWIW, I didn’t treat my old phone terribly. It happened to someone else who had the phone as well. Plastic is cheap, and cracks.
its battery is 2300 mAh li-po
Your Atrix was a piece of crap. That’s no reflection on plastic in general. My s3’s battery cover is still brand new. And guess what — if it cracks I can easily replace it for a few bucks! If your precious HTC back is damaged, good luck on easily replacing it.
As somebody still rocking a SGS2 and ready to upgrade I can tell you first hand the reason I haven’t purchased a HTC One is the lack of micro SD. I would like a removable battery too but that’s not a deal breaker.
Let me be clear @DavidVarghese if the HTC One had a micro SD slot I would own one now. Whatever your opinion the lack of SD slot has cost HTC atleast one sale and I suspect many more.
I see, well I know an sd card slot is a must-have thing for some people, but yet again, is not a must-have thing for most people. The lack of a sd-card isn’t the real reason why HTC is failing. Heck, we don’t even know if HTC is actually failing yet because we haven’t seen the Q2 numbers yet, which is when HTC fully released the HTC One.
And how exactly do you know what most people want/
Not want, what they need. Do you really think non-android fans or technological-disabled is really gonna know how to put stuff on their sd cards, let alone move apps on to it? After working in retail, I can tell you straight up: the majority of the public don’t care. They just care about the name, like the iPhone or the Galaxy.
Exactly what I thought. It’s a bit arrogant but I wasn’t going to call him on it as he was as short and rude in his original post as the 1st OP. Since then he’s changed his position a few times when challenged. Fanbois are going to justify their arguments despite the facts.
Lol mmokay, I’m an Android fan-boy. I don’t see how I changed my position a few times, but please enlighten me.
Ohh two down votes. Must be upsetting some fanbois with a personal account. Keep it coming!
I’m in agreement w/the SD Card/Battery specs.While I don’t have the need for an SD Card slot,many others do & is almost a necessity to avoid data overages on a lot of the carrier plans,I’d welcome it back on the next HTC flagship.
If not,a minimum of 64GB after O/S storage,should be the standard.
8GB of storage is more than I need on my Nexus 4. Cloud services! :-D
I´m using HTC phone for a long time and now about the advantages (also disadvantages) in the past.
The HTC One is really a nice phone but missing sd card slot and not removable battery was my reason to not consider the HTC One anymore.
Especially the fact that HTC is able to produce different version for different markets shows that there are no technical reasons available.
Yup, my reason for not considering HTC as well. So funny to see idiots like DavidVarghese dismiss those of us who want SD cards / removable battery as a “minority”… too bad the facts don’t bear that out… HTC is failing badly while Samsung is top dog…
yea idiots like David will never acknowledge that.
Speak for yourself and the other 27 people. It damn sure curved my opinion on them.
Idiotic statement. So, based on your incompetent logic, Apple must be out of touch with their customers by selling over 300 million iPhones worldwide without having a removable battery or SD card, eh? Oh, and they still continue to have record sales! I have a 64GB HTC One Dev edition and love it.
Lol maybe thats why Apple only has 17 percent of the market and Android has 76.Its embarrassing to own an iphone now
Your chosing the wrong numbers to suit your argument.
Market share by Operating System counts for nothing here because not all manufacturers include removable batteries and sdcards.
The important thing by your argument is market share by manufacturers. Apple have 21% with 3 current models – only samsung has more and they sell 31 different android phones. They also take 71% of all mobile profit!
Apple might be many things but struggling because they don’t have a removable battery and sd card slot is not one of them.
Yeah it’s the exact same reasons why the iPhone doesn’t sell
removable battery and micro sd cards are not HTC’s main problem. only techies care about that. public loves familiarity. Galaxy is a strong brand and has a huge marketing team behind it. that’s what is driving sammy to success.
I love my HTC One. Posting from this right now…
It’s a great device. I have 32gb of storage…do I need an sd card? Nope.
you might not, that doesnt mean the market doesnt. The chinese variant of the one has a microsd slot…its stupid not to bring it here
As does the Japanese variant.
True, and I wished that the US version of the HTC One had one. I welcome more freedom to do whatever I want with my phone. However, I owned an Evo LTE before upgrading to the One, and I put a 16 gb micro sd card on that bad boy. Along with the 16 gb already on the Evo LTE, I only used 10 gb on the storage (on the Evo LTE) and 4 gb on my sd card.
I’m not sure of HTC’s reasoning on why the US version of the HTC doesn’t have an sd card slot, but I’m personally fine with it. Also, the sd card does actually make your phone run slower if you put apps on it. That being said, I don’t mind putting a couple movies on my HTC One’s sd card without worrying about space.
I get it. They could have designed the phone so that just below the SIM slot there was a micro sd card slot.
They could have offered the 64gb version to everyone. There we a lot of things they could have done. Maybe it isn’t a bad thing all these people are leaving. There is a reason they weren’t doing well right? Normally comes from management…
What i’m saying is they should have left people the choice to use what they wanted. I really wanted the One, i was a Samsung fan but the one, besides the camera, is a great phone. The removable battery thing doesnt concern me cause i can manage my juice, but the microsd, that does, i have 36gb of music, and i want it all on my phone, i also tend to transfer all my pictures of my previous phone onto my new one, so it stacks up another 14gbs, So 32GB is far from being enough and it is the only reason why I didnt chose the One. But like me, enough of the population needs that space so that it affected the One sale. I’m curious to know what are the sales number…i doubt they sold more than 3 million since launch
I used to keep all the photos on my phone, then my phone died, and I lost all the pictures.
Its personal preference, and that’s why choice is good. Losing HTC would be bad for all.
There has to be some reason why both Google and HTC have decided to drop the MicroSD card. We may just not know yet (unless it truly is to force people to go Cloud).
What if your sd card gets corrupted? Which is far more common.
thats why you have a backup on the your PC. Everytime my phone is being charged and connected to my wifi, it automatically backs up all my pictures, files, folders, message logs, contacts and everything else, it’s called DropSync and its an awesome app, like that if you lose the phone or it breaks, you always have a backup. Its a smart way to beat technology flaws.
Google and HTC say that cloud storage is the future, it might be, but without an unlimited data plan, or some kind of super fast permanent connection, it doesnt make sense to rely solely on cloud storage. Having your music stored on some kind of cloud it stupid, what if youre traveling, or in a building with a poor connection…its just too soon
What the frick do you put on your phone?
pr0n
At least he’s honest.
Same.
Pretty sure the average buyer (those who do not read dedicated Android websites and forums) could care less. It’s not like Samsung markets the fact that you can throw in whatever size SD you want and can swap batteries to your heart’s is content.
I would not be surprised at all if Samsung abandoned that route soon. The S4 was pretty much just an update to the S3. Similar body and style etc. Could see them going the “sexy” route next year as well.
Definitely do not want HTC to die on us. I love Samsung but I like having competition and having a hard choice to make come phone buying season
Couldn’t agree more.
Me too. In fact I just got the HTC One today ( and im a big Samsung guy).
Thank you. I was so totally expecting a bunch of in-fighting here. Glad this was the first comment I saw.
Agree with you, that’s why it’s so frustrating to see HTC make mistake after mistake. Why can’t they offer a decent phone with removable battery and SD card slot??? Shooting themselves in the foot rather than truly compete.
I guess they just want to move in the direction that iPhone has been heading. Works for them so why not? It is clear that Google also wants to move away from SD cards. I guess it will soon be a thing of the past like keyboards perhaps.
But I doubt that the general consumer really cares. Just pisses the enthusiasts off
And Apple is losing market share relative to the entire market, not to mention stagnant as hell. Yea, moving the direction that iPhone is heading, LOL that’s a good one!
Competition is healthy. Android needs it. I love Samsung & HTC phones. Both have their strengths and weaknesses. It makes me cringe when otherwise intelligent people waste their energy on bashing one or the other.
You are just regurgitating the Verge Chris’ article….what the heck?
So what? He’s not plagiarizing. You can only rephrase things so much.
Yup. Paraphrased really. Thought it was interesting and our readers would like know about it (was also posted late in the evening).
To those execs that chose to leave:
Don’t let the door hit ya where the Good Lord split ya!
HTC is headed in the right direction.A lot of the marketing would take care of itself @ the grass-roots level if HTC can ensure their next major release/flagship launches to all markets simultaneously & 100%, w/o the “limited availability” & exclusives.
The ONE is a great phone, however, if warranty claims eat up a larger than normal percentage of profits due to the unservicability of the phone attributable to the sealed design, they may need to re-think this & throw in an SD Card slot to attract a larger audience.
As for the battery, more is always better. If they could wedge in a 3000 mAh battery, that would be plenty of capacity for most & break through the psychological 3000 barrier to sway even more potential 1st time HTC users.
To those that may believe the demise of HTC is forthcoming due to these departures, think again:
HTC has never posted a net loss in any fiscal quarter. They’ll be around for the long term.
Just a few things I would have liked them to do from the start. 64GB version to ALL available carriers. Micro SD slot like its Chinese version, if they can do it for the Chinese market they can do it for the rest of the world. More ad presence for the One. I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen an HTC One ad but I can tell you when and where I’ve seen a Galaxy S4 ad. Yesterday, on YouTube and on 5 different websites.
Limiting a version of the HTC One just doesn’t seem smart. I would imagine blanketing the device across as many markets and carriers as possible would serve them better. You have consumers that would like to get their hands on the One but it’s difficult for them to acquire it.
I thought this was suppose to be HTC’s “make or break” year with this One but so far it doesn’t seem to be a device that’s widely available like the S4 is. I’d like to see HTC really get their house in order, to compete with the likes of Samsung. HTC staying in the mix is great for consumers.
That’s what I’m talking about.Grass-roots level marketing,i.e. retail-level availability / visibility. If you can’t have it in stock,at minimum have a demo model available in all outlets.Kinda hard to sell something you don’t have in stock or to test drive.
The ONE has been out in the U.S. for a month,yet,not a single T-MOBILE store in my area has a demo,much less stock.The first & only ONE any of them has seen is mine.
If HTC ramps up production to overcome the shortages on the next phone,the sales should eclipse those of this year’s.
HTC might have stepped up their game with the One, but they need to add more accessibility if they’re planning on dethroning Samsung. A stock HTC One is definitely needed to go up against the upcoming Google S4.
HTCya
You forgot a space between HTC and ya. Here you go:
HTC YA!
Please contain you’re excitement for HTC and their success they are going to have in Q2.
lol, yeah im sorry they had to go, but it’s extremely hard to compete with Samsung at this point. Ahh, it’s a good time to be a Samsung fan.
Do you really want to lose HTC as a competitor in the space? What good does it do to limit choice of consumers? What if all we had was Apple and iOS?
I’d rather have a better competition. HTC was no competition in the first place. Survival of the fittest baby.
I couldn’t disagree more, but everyone has their opinions.
i think instead of spending all kinds of money on commercials HTC can get more employees to go to bestbuy and att and t-mobile and all carriers that sell there phone and challenge costumers as they walk in the door the hold the phone and play with it, go over specs and compare it to phones like samsung, because alot of carrier employees sell phones based off what is being advertised more and what is hot vs. what is actually better. and its a shame because most people are really sheep, they go into a carrier not knowing anything except what they see on t.v. more often and quickly assume its the best thing. Only if 90% of americans knew how the take time and test the waters, samsung wouldnt be so big here in the U.S.
You do have a good point, on more then one occasion there’s been Samsung reps in AT&T stores. Local BB has a Samsung kiosks and its not only for their phones. They also could use a funny commerical like the one Nokia has with WP.
Wow, plagiarized and poorly written/edited.
With no citation of where it was plagiarized from? How can you be taken seriously?
Well, pull your head out of your ass and read. Simple. RIF
theverge was cited as the source in the first sentence of the article. One doesn’t cite the source when one plagiarizes.
Suck a huge one
I must agree that most people don’t really know about the pleasures of having an SD card and being able to just move data from phone to phone without the need of a sync cord but that doesn’t mean the One shouldn’t have a slot, especially if other versions do. I honestly would have preferred a One over my s3 but the fact that there was no SD card slot was a real breaker for me since thats where I keep my music and most cherished photos/videos. However all that aside, the only thing that will send HTC downhill is continued poor marketing. The consumers need to know more about their devices, especially one such as the One. I’m a big HTC fan, they make quality devices. They just need to make sure they keep SD card slot next time, get some better marketing ideas and hire people to fill vacant positions in the company who really believe in the product being sold.
Dude said “deuces”
I love HTC, but like many others, I switched to Samsung because I needed an SDcard slot, and a removable battery. Let me break this down clearly:
All your files on internal storage are GONE if you damage the phone, very minimum chance of recovery. If you warranty or insurance replace it, your stuff is also gone. Yeah yeah you need to backup your files constantly, I know that, but not many people do that and suffer from this issue.
But wait there’s cloud storage available! Yeah that’s true, but I travel a lot and not everyone has 4G, even in Tmobile LTE cities like Houston and Las Vegas have spotty reception, and good luck If you’re in the country or the middle of nowhere trying to access your cloud.
Also, clouds can’t store app data. There’s apps2sd for sdcards that can do that, what do you do if you have an 8gb internal storage card or even a 16gb if you have a bunch of apps and games? You gotta install and uninstall things.
Also sdcards are very durable, I had one go through the washer and dryer and come out fine!
And an example of why a replaceable battery is important. I had an s3 a few months ago and even after rooting it, I was getting abysmal battery life. Easy solution, replace the battery with a factory sized anker battery and voilà.
People say HTC keeps the no easily replaceable battery and lack of memory card slot because of the unibody design they have adapted, but honestly thats bullshit because the HTC Sensation was a unibody that had the replaceable battery and sdcard slot.
I hate that Google and HTC are abandoning the good ol sdcard and replaceable battery. If HTC wants to succeed they should follow samsungs example and bring those things back while still maintaining their quality unibody shells and craftsmanship. Till then im with Samsung and perfectly content with my Note 2.
Also not to mention the simple transfer of data among devices. Sdcards are awesome!
One of the number 1 reasons I need a sd card… I have had 1 sd card over the last 4 years and each time I got a new phone all I needed was to move the sd card into my new phone and I was set up all again… Also cloud Is not good enough for everyone as not everyone has superfast 4g or unlimited data and also streaming media uses up more battery than from local storage. As long as there are phones with a sd card I will always pick one of them over a phone that doesn’t.
Make totally sense. What is very surprising is why HTC decided to forfeit on those 2 features (SD & removable battery). Count the number of sales lost to S4, hope they will learn a lesson for their next phone.
That’s cool and all and i understand your need for sd card. (i need neither sd card or removable battery – warranty if battery turns to crap and i dont have a huge collection of music)
My only thing with people making statements like that is that SD cards might be a reason for a small number of sales, but the majority of people don’t swap out SD cards. A lot of people don’t even know their phones have SD cards. Their lack of sales is mostly hung on their reputation and their past. Old HTC phones with bad battery life and cruddy marketing.
Small number of sales? Where’s your proof to back that up? I have Galaxy S3, note 2, and will be getting the S4 / Note 3 as well. Count at least 4 losses of sale personally to HTC alone, and my friends / family all have chose Samsung galaxy products over HTC because of the lack of SD card and/or removable battery.
You can dismiss it as “small” all you want, but the facts are the facts, and Samsung is winning where HTC is falling.
I think the proof is in the numbers. I’m not saying having those things wouldn’t boost sales, but i’m saying you can’t attribute those factors to the main reason samsung is killing it. Samsung is killing it not because of the enthusiast sales, but because of the general consumers. And for much of the general consumers, SD Cards/removable batteries are NOT deal breakers. Want proof? See iphone. SO yes that would help, but simply tossing those things inside the One wouldnt transform it to a phone that outsells the GS4
I have the One Developers on order, I don’t care about the battery, I have my car, work and home, all with chargers, usb ports etc… The reason I would like to see a sd card, not so much for storage, 64gb is plenty. Its if one is flashing roms, you can backup what you had and restore with little problems using Nandroid without having the storage area refomatted.
I feel you. SD cards are lovely accessories, and best of all a good bragging point when debating with iphoners, but that fact that you still own a One despite its lack of sd card proves my point.
Agreed, HTC is losing a number of sales to Samsung due to this issue. Too bad their Chinese One has a SD card slot, but they chose not to offer it in the US.
We need more manufacturers to be competitive in this space, but it seems they keep taking themselves out of the game with stupid moves to turn people off, like not offering SD card or removable battery options.
If they’d just build a phone that was on all big 4 carriers, just like Samsung then they would instantly see at LEAST a 30% sales increase.
Agreed, that’s a big part of it. Both Apple and Samsung know that but few others do it. It also helps marketing when you can just advertise a phone instead of having to include certain carriers, which isolates those who aren’t on that carrier. HTC makes great phones, just fail when it comes to handling them afterwards.
That was one of the first things they did under the new marketing strategy. The one will be on the big 4 carriers. Vrz is just late to the game but it will be soon.
Too bad the One is lacking key consumer features, so doesn’t matter if it’s on all 4 carriers or not.
Before samsung made the Galaxy S a hit, they had a whole line of crappy phones. Really subpar pieces of crap, such as the Intercept, which I (un)proudly owned. Maybe HTC should go back to making cheap, affordable pieces of crap.
NOOOoooooo!
Even though I like the plastic design of Samsung over those of HTC (though the sams samsung design in metal would be better)
I still liked HTC more as a company and really rooted for them!
Samsung is becoming Apple 2.0 and their marketing (though very effecitve, contrary to that of HTC) is horrible, tacky and just bad imo.
I hope Google can help HTC out a little by having them make a new Nexus phone or tablet….I wouldn;t mind owning another HTC nexus.
Chris Chavez definitely seems bitter toward Samsung in this post, “left for greener pastures” not Samung, “another galaxy twin” lol. Then again your old posts were so pro Apple too, I always take them with a huge grain of salt.
I like Samsung’s smartphones. I’ve read a lot about some underhanded things the company has been doing, but I wouldn’t call myself “bitter” owning both the SGS3, Note 2, and soon the GS4 Google Edition.
I don’t agree with Apple’s business practices, but I think they can make some great hardware and that they’re a necessary evil. Not sure if that can be considered “pro” Apple.
This is not bad news at all. The only thing this signals is change. People complained about HTC’s marketing strategy for years. Also complained about their stagnant design. Well guess what people, they are finally listening. These disgruntled guys are having the power taken from them and given to new people with new ideas. Of course them being human, they are gonna try and bad mouth the company because they feel slighted. Who cares…..move on. Your ideas got stale, so its on to the next creative person with fresh ideas and bold stragegies. Looks like HTC decided to take charge instead of being status quo. Kudos to them.
Well said. Was thinking the same thing as I read the article.
@Chris Chavez. I love reading your posts because I agree with most of what you say and your quips are somewhat amusing. But sometimes you make me want to release the Grammar Kraken on you…LOL.
I totally understand. Hahaha.. Some days are worse than others and yesterday was definitely my OFF day. :p
Gimme my sd slot and removable battery. =(
Too bad HTC will go down to their demise by sticking to no SD card and no removable battery… but oh they make the prettiest phones….
Man I have been waiting to get a great HTC phone ever since the nexus one and i was so stoked when i got my ONE. but then i got the S4 and I didn’t think I ever would but I like the S4 better. Its crazy I know. i was betting that i would love the one over the 4 but that wasn’t the case. While the tech world chooses the one, in my experience the average consumer more than half the time go with sammy. Even my sister is affected I’m trying to upgrade her from the iPhone 5 to use the HTC one and she ain’t having it lol
Hopefully they will stick around.
screw s4 and the bloated touchwiz, same goes for that awful home button
You are a true idiot. You think Touchwize is bloated? TWZ has nothing on Sense when it comes to bloat!!
Touchwiz/Nature UI is incredibly bloated compared to Sense 5
great job with the personal attack. i have tried touchwiz on the S3 and even with JB, it lags behind sense 4+ on JB. i can’t comment on sense version prior to 4 as i’ve heard those were bad.
Poor HTC. After all the missteps they’ve made I don’t know if they can recover unless the One is a ridiculously huge hit. And the likelihood of that happening is less and less with every Samsung ad I see.
Come on HTC. The facebook phone admittedly was dumb and if you didn’t pass all costs on to Facebook for that little venture then whoever made that decision should be fired, unless it was the same person behind the HTC ONE. The HTC ONE is simply a beautiful phone and you should continue to help lift it out of the park with advertising and marketing.
Sad to know that! !! Htc, don’t give up. … your product are very good, just replace those old guys (with old idea, old strategy) with young talented personnel. Just maintain the durability/beauty of your phone like the “ONE” plus add slim high capacity of replaceable batt and sd slot that people wants. For the old guys “your are still good but. .. they need a fresh talented young ones” that can help in marketing/advertisement to promote the product. Like the old saying ” your credit is good, but we need cash” !!!
It’s simple HTC, until you figure out something smart and unique to differentiate yourselves, copy Samsung. Go with replaceable batteries and memory card expansion. Keep Sense if you feel you must. Under no circumstance should you continue on your present trainwreck of a business strategy.
If I were Google I would make a bid to buy them. I wouldn’t even be surprised if Samsung doesn’t try to buy them out.
I love my Galaxy Note 2, and think it superior to BOTH HTC One, and GS4.. but I really wish HTC well. I’d hate to see them go under. hopefully, they’ll find some solution to their problem at hand. Good luck Htc!