CEO Peter Chou sees 15% market share in HTC’s future, doesn’t plan on going anywhere
HTC CEO Peter Chou has been making some big bets with the HTC One. You may remember amid rumors of delays, Chou felt so confident that the flagship would perform well, he went on the record as saying he’d “step down,” if the One wasn’t a success. While officially numbers haven’t been disclosed, the HTC One has been generally seen as a hit. The One has been widely reviewed as one of the best smartphones to date thanks in part to a sleek design, premium materials, high-end specs and a completely revamped version of Sense.
Riding high on the HTC One’s success, Chou said during a shareholder’s meeting today that he now expects the company’s market share to jump from a modest 4% last year, to 10-15% in the future. This doesn’t sound too far fetched as Chou points out, HTC once accounted for 10% of the global smartphone sales, even reaching upwards of 30% market share in some areas.
As for their plans for 2013, Chou says HTC will “redouble” their efforts to increase brand recognition and loyalty (we can’t help but wonder if the $12 million they handed to Robert Downey Jr. is apart of that equation). He also mentioned that HTC has been doing some heavy spending on R&D (research and development), honing their craft to build better smartphones with a strong focus on product innovation.
As for Peter Chou finding a new job, he reminds us he isn’t going anywhere. Not even after it was discovered he, and other top level execs took a 51% pay decrease in 2012. He was quoted in an interview saying, “There are a lot of rumors that say I would quit, but I never said that. I’m not going to find another job.” Chou is here to stay (so help him).
[via FocusTaiwan]