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HTC can’t seem to find the formula for success in the mobile market, reporting losses quarter over quarter. There is no easy formula for a market in which the top 3 manufacturer is doing bad. Samsung and Apple are pretty much the only ones doing well and something has to be done. Could an acquisition be the best solution for HTC?
Recent rumors assure that HTC has been meeting with Lenovo for a possible acquisition that would conclude during the first half of 2014. It’s said these meetings have been held since August, 2013. What exactly could be happening here?
We know HTC is not at its best, but we didn’t think they could be that hurt yet. Also, Lenovo is no renowned brand in the smartphone/tablet market. Lenovo does have a large presence in Asia, though. Their computers are also very popular in the rest of the world. Could it be Lenovo wants to improve its lackluster mobile department by bringing in HTC’s expertise?
Seems to make sense. And though we hate to see HTC going somewhere else, it’s a great brand and we also wouldn’t like to see it completely die. Let’s wait until we hear more on this, because none of it is official just yet. We should be hearing more if this rumor is true – in which case, you will be the first we tell!
Thanks for the tip, Karla!
Htc really needs to up their marketing budget to compete with Samsung with their next flagship.
Did you not see all the advertising with Robert Downey Jr.? Advertising obviously isn’t the problem for HTC.
Not gonna lie…but those ads were pretty terrible.
They werent “terrible”. they were fun and had RDJ. They were good commercials for the company of HTC, but if you have no idea who HTC is (as most dumb hairy humans dont) then you have no idea they make smartphones. They should have at the very least had RDJ using a ONE, or something.
Your statement in the parenthesis only applies to such a small amount of humans. Not only do they have to be dumb, they also have to be hairy. LoL!!
Good point, lol. But isnt everyone hairy….somewhere, lol.
Hipster Troll Carwash?
More like Helpless Taiwanese Company
When Samsung is spending over $400,000,000 and HTC is spending barely over $100,000,000 then advertising is clearly a problem. You’ve seen how the One is getting amazing reviews and “phone of the year” so marketing is the only factor contributing to lower sales because there’s only a small percentage of users who demand expandable memory (Which is dying anyhow) and they’re using quality materials which is what Samsung fans (and haters) complain about the most.
But ‘amazing reviews’ are part of marketing. There’s a reason why people are ignoring the reviews.
Reviews are not marketing. Most people that walk into a store to buy a smartphone dont read up or check reviews, they go to a store because something was advertised and they want to try it out. They may read reviews afterward, but most people dont do research. Thats just fact. Ask Apple.
Don’t forget gimmicks which to be honest is what grabbed consumers attention in Samsung’s case. If they just throw in one gimmick (i.e. eye scrolling) they would have people talking….
Nobody I know with the GS4 uses those gimmicks. I’m just saying. LoL!!
Even my techie friend I work with doesn’t even use those gimmicks. He actually threw Google Edition on the S4 because he said to laggy.
He also says he wants to get the One because he likes the speakers. =.3
Let them all slowly convert over.
That ad sucked… Hipster troll carwash and Robert Downey told me NOTHING about the product that htc sells,… Terrible, terrible ad
those shouldn’t even be considered advertisements. it’s not just having marketing exist… it’s having GOOD marketing and an actual strategic plan
I think they also need to advertise in other mediums, like on billboards, etc. We see Samsung as often as we see Apple products these days. HTC needs to invest in that.
No. I only saw them on Youtube. LoL!! Like, no lie.
As much as I feel that spending money on commercials instead of R&D is wasting it, they do need the exposure to the general public to show them they have good products. The HTC One is a great phone, hopefully with the One MAX they will also start a MAX marketing campaign of MAX proportions :P
Ofc they need effective marketing…throwing more money at bad commercials etc is wasting it in a stupid way.
yup, you need to spend billions on both R&D and Marketing like samsung.
And before spending, you need to have the billions, which HTC doesn’t. Lenovo does tho. I’m excited to see what products will come out of this it it does happen of course.
Yes. I’d love to see what they can cook up, too. I can’t WAIT until 2014. Ooo!! *nerd-mode on*
I love the HTC One, I guess they need better marketing and “gimmicks” to grab peoples attention.
NO!! No gimmicks!! This is why the phone is as smooth as stock Android.
HTC makes some great phones! I really love there products. But, to be honest, the last HTC my wife owned (HTC One S) was OK. Only good thing was a decent camera. She had it replaced and got the Samsung S2 under warranty through TMo.
She likes Samsung products better. As do I.
Recently we went to check out the new phones at TMo. Now HTC One first of all….bad move. Second, the LG G2 appears to be much much nicer than expected. The rounded edges on the glass and seamless transition to the edge is very nice.
Compared, the G2 is better feel to me than the Note 3. The note 3 feels odd. It has a lipped edge and the fake plastic/leather back feels even more fake. I know its plastic and it feels that way. Its like pleather.
Wish HTC had something to compare, but they didnt. Too bad. Step up your game or sell out. Youre not winning my vote until you start taking things much more seriously.
not sure how you can get more serious than phone of the year Lol.
not sure who voted that. Kind of odd to vote a phone of the year with a minimum of half a year to go? Thats a bit concerning…
no it was definitely a premature vote for the entire 2013, but it was at some gadget trade show… so i assume it was the phone of the year with their year behaving almost like a fiscal year… from one trade show till the next. Regardless, that phone has had praise from all over so i think it should be considered as “taking things seriously.”
The ONE is simply that awesome, there really are no competitors in quality.
Smartphone and tech reviewers actually used the device and compared it to others available at the time. Thats who voted for it, its an amazing phone. Its only “concerning” to someone eager to hate on HTC in everyone of his posts.
Where exactly did the HTC One fail at? Marketing? Thats the only problem I saw with the device. I’ve owned the GS4 G2 and the HTC One and my current daily driver is the One. Its a magnificent phone.
All I know is every time I or my wife is ready to go snag a phone, TMo doesnt have many choices for HTC. The HTC One X wasnt available. We got the crappy One S.
Now the HTC One and soon to be One Maxx is going to be available. I cannot go into a store and compare them along side LG or Samsung
Dont know where you live, but the ONE has been in stores with LG and Samsung phones for months now. Tmo always has good choices from HTC. I started with a HTC G1, then went to the HTC G2, then the HTC ONE S, which was not crappy btw. Now I have a ONE. HTC has always been a quality OEM, and the software and hardware have always been spot on. If you want to get likes for hating on HTC at least make your comments make sense a little bit.
I have a TMo HTC One and the S4 doesn’t stand a chance. This phone doesn’t lag, crash, and it has the best performance out of the two. You my friend have been brain washed with gimmicks. The only note worthy feature the SGS4 had is multi window. I’d rather have sturdy build and bullet proof software and performance than a phone full of features that 95% of the public will never use.
The HTC ONE compares to and surpasses the G2, the Note 3, and the GS4. How is it a “bad move” ? whatever that means.
One better than GS4? Not in a million years.
I traded my Galaxy S4 for an HTC One and I prefer the one. The screen is awesome, the camera is awesome, the speakers blow the S4 out of the water and honestly the metal feels much better than plastic. This is my first HTC since I had an olllllld Windows Phone. I’ve owned 5 Samsung phones, 1 Motorola and one HTC since 09′ and for the first time I think Samsung came in second place.
I LOVED my S4…but there’s something about the One.
Hold on…
HTC One is a fantastic phone, solid in the hand, feels like the high quality phone it is.
Note 3, The back is soft touch, the front looks like brushed metal, the phone is actually quite solid and professional looking.
The G2 is a slippery shiny fingerprint magnet plasticky back.
I wanted to like the G2, I was going to give LG a chance as the Optimus G was a fantastic phone, but the polish of the Note 3 is what won me over. The shi*ty shiny plastic back like the s4 just looks cheap, and is so f’n slippery.
Lenovo has tons of cash and the inside lane on supply chains I see this as a positive move no matter what. I don’t want to see
I’d buy a Lenovo smartphone. I’d likely not buy an HTC smartphone.
HTC is million times better than samsung and lenovo
In what sense? HTC has consistently let consumers down.
Have you seen the updates rolling out to the HTC One. right now they are beating every OEM out there.
How have they let consumers down exactly ? To quote you, “in what sense?”
I see what you did there. =.3
I can agree there I have owned the mytouch 3G and 4G slide decent phones but support was horrible.
Marketing …
When the (one maxx) hits Verizon ,me and the wife are hopping aboard . Sammy let me and her down with the note 3, it wasn’t enough for us to upgrade to it.
And One Max is? Not dissing HTC, I love their product line (except TB).
I just wonder what does it have that GN3 doesn’t? Metal chassis? Fingerprint scanner?
I haven’t picked up my reserved Note from the carrier, so I’m curious to know what others consider strengths of One Max, especially the ones that Note is lacking.
There are none. :)
A six inch hd screen.
What else did u want on the Note 3?
A six inch hd screen and 64 gigs.
I wanted 6″ too, or at least 5.9″ as the first rumors suggested. It came 5.7″. I used to have the Note 2 and I can tell you that this .2″ is very welcome, specially with the 1080p. As for the 64GB I don’t think is totally necessary unless you do need more than 96GB total capacity (32GB + 64GB micro sd card).
They may be able to slow the bleeding but they won’t be able to ever stop the bleeding. All htc does is sell phones and thats it, they aren’t like samsung sony or lg who has other divisions that can pick up the slack if their mobile division isn’t profitable. Right now, htc just doesn’t have the working capital to make any significant rebounds. Everyone talk about effective marketing, which is definitely true but where is htc gonna get that kind of money? Samsung spent $900mil in 2012 on marketing and even more will be spent this year on marketing and most of that are on galaxy adverts. There is no way htc can compete on that level. It takes more than just a great device to get back to number one. With lenovo they will have the working capital thats desperately needed to get back to where they once were.
Lenovo and htc seem to me like they could get along very well together. In an office environment, lenovo pcs are very price effective with good longevity. If a lenovo android phone hit the u.s. I’d seriously consider it.
I wouldn’t. It depends on how far the Chinese government has up Lenovo’s skirt like they do with ZTE and the couple others.
If they do get acquired, i at least hope they let HTC keep the company name.
I think if HTC had done what Samsung is doing in best buy stores they get more exposure from people that don’t really know much about them.
And as great as the screen is on the one, when it’s sitting side by side with an sgs4 it looks like the colors are muted. Personally I think the screen on the one is better but the colors on the sgs4 pop.
Just my thoughts
For htc to do anything on the same level as samsung, they will also have to have samsung type money which they don’t come close to having, this is were Lenovo will come in.
Amen
This nails it. I’m sure HTC would love to have the massive leverage that Samsung has to spend what they do on marketing. Samsung has an insane vertical integration advantage. I hope HTC is able to get back on their feet because they have brought a lot of great things to the mobile computing industry
I don’t care if HTC gets absorbed by Lenovo, as long as there is good non gimmicky features, and better build and sound quality like before, and the UI is just as good if not better, I say, looks like a good future to me
Also as long as they let HTC keep the company name and branding on the phones as well.
Won’t happen. Lenovo is much bigger and has a much stronger name.
Where ? Im pretty sure if you put HTC and Lenovos company names on a table and ask people which company theyre familiar with theyll pick HTC more often than Lenovo.
Maybe in the little town you live. Lenovo is the biggest pc manufacturer in the world. HTC is a dying company.
I live in NYC you idiot. Lenovo took over the IBM think pads. Theyre hardly the biggest PC manufacturer. HP has that honor, or at the very least HP is the best. If you put the name LENOVO next to HTC in NYC, more people would recognize HTC than LENOVO, thats fact. Now go away.
I’m sorry, I meant the small town you are from. Lenovo mkt capital is $85B, HTC is less than $1B. Remember, the world is much bigger than your small perception of it. =P
But he lives in NYC man! :P How could the world be much bigger than that?
I said “name recognition” when buying a smartphone. When put beside HTC and Samsung, and even Windows Phone or Blackberry, Lenovo is the odd name out. Thats fact, not opinion. In the PC market it would be more recognizable of course. Snyde remarks just make your opinion worthless.
Sorry man I just found the comment a little funny considering the other guy was talking about overall brand recognition, which Lenovo most certainly surpasses HTC.
It’s a wash between HP and Lenovo on market share (14M PC/laptop devices each Q3 of last year), but they do make more than Thinkpads. They acquired IBM’s PC and laptop divisions years ago and make both now under their own brand. They are a far bigger brand than HTC, and even HTC has admitted that their biggest challenge is with marketing……
Well we know HTC needs marketing help. lol. Bigger, doesnt mean better. The point i was trying to get across was name recognition, not the size of the company. More people are familiar with HTC than LENOVO.
HTC isn’t some kind of iconic name Lenovo is as big as it needs to overtake HTC and the name doesn’t need to stick Lenovo is practically a premium windows brand I love their products
I live and America both names are popular to me but still choose Lenovo over HP anyday.
So NYC = world? Even if what you say is true (you have no facts to back it up anyway), that is still one city.
Im simply talking name recognition. Never said NYC equals world.
… than “blahblah”
Also.
Don’t care about the name, jus the quality of the phone and the quality of the UI, it could be called the all new blahblah for all I care
About time.
I’ll take one X1 Carbon phone please.
HTC = halt this crap!!! (Let’s see how many negative)
Personally I think Lenovo would be a perfect fit to take HTC.
Lenovo is a trusted and internationally known brand. They are one of the few PC manufacturers out-preforming the general PC slump.
They have experience building smartphones and android devices but lack penetration in markets outside of asia, something that HTC has. And I think a lot of HTC’s problems could be fixed with better upper management because their products (while frustrating to me personally due to odd decisions like only two navigation buttons) are generally great. Lenovo also might be able to bring the HTC to enterprise in a big way.
If Lenovo can preserve what makes HTC special, while providing them with funds as well as robustness to not just depend on smartphone sales (by being part of the larger Lenovo company) I think we could see HTC survive as a real competitor in the smartphone space. It is certainly better than letting them go the way of Blackberry etc.
Agreed. HTC would be the perfect front door for Lenovo to get into the smartphone biz. I’d be excited to see what new products would come out of this.
Well said… I’ve been a fan of HTC for many years. The part about preserving what makes them special is key.
There used to be phone company called Ericsson.
Sony bought it and their products became “Sony Ericsson”
Now, they dumped the word “Ericsson”.. They simply call their phones “Sony”.
Will this happen to Lenovo and HTC?
First we see “Lenovo HTC” phones, then they will discard the word “HTC” later on..
On that day, HTC will be missed forever!
—
Good bye HTC, I will always remember my first HTC.. the HTC MDA-Vario!
By contract, Ericson only agreed to be acquired by Sony if they kept the name for so long. I honestly don’t think HTC is in the position to demand such a thing from lenovo. In fact, HTC has no chance to compete with big behemoth like Samsung, Apple, Sony, Microsoft, LG and Chinese ZTE and Huawei. The only hope HTC has is to be acquired sooner rather than later.
I find it funny how you were downvoted even though you are most definitely correct in what you said.
ironic the only company who paid millions to Apple in a licensing scheme to play it safe.
Honestly, if HTC phones had good battery life, I would be a buyer for sure. Motorola and samsung murder them in this department.
Htc makes awesome phones the Htc one is the prime example, all they needed was more marketing but they don’t have the money to do them that’s where Lenovo comes in they could pup new life / money into Htc. I definitely would hate to see an android system without Htc in the mix.
Lenovo! I like their products very nice and affordable
I have never liked Lenovo and so if they purchased HTC I would likely not buy an HTC/Lenovo product for quite a while. I have owned the HTC Evo 4g and the HTC Evo 4g LTE but I’ve been turned off by HTC products lately so I was likely to jump ship anyways.
Agreed. Id buy a LG G2 or a Note 3 as of now.
I have never had an issue with a Lenovo product would be interesting to see if this happens.
This sounds like a viable solution, as long as they get rid of the current head of HTC in the process. He more than anyone is responsible for the mess that they have gotten into.
HTC products such where it matters the most and that’s battery life.
And terribly finicky touchscreens, and boot-loader locking.
After the grief I’ve dealt with over their phones, I’m so glad they are dying.