By 
Lorain Wong was hired as HTC’s head of global PR in June of this year. Four months later she is making her exit. The departure is only the latest in a string of company executives taking their leave from a company that has seen better days. Wong is the the third high-ranking PR team member to resign from HTC in the past two years.
Though Wong’s run as part of HTC’s executive team has ended, she will remain a consultant for the Taiwanese smartphone maker for at least the next few months. The circumstances surrounding her departure were described as personal.
HTC has been working to rebound from a trend of that has seen the company take financial losses quarter after quarter, but the worst might be yet to come. The company is in the midst of an expensive, global marketing push that looks to reshape the image of Android device manufacturer. So far the results have been less than positive.
[via Bloomberg]
“the company is in the midst of a global marketing push”. No pain no gain I suppose. Looks like they are on the right track at least
I’d hit it.
Can’t remember the last time I saw an HTC commercial here in CA. However, you can’t watch three minutes of prime time TV without seeing a Samsung ad. There is no reason why the One shouldn’t be leading the pack in sales. This thing is the smoothest running, nicest looking smartphone I’ve ever used. No question.
I guess they are relying on third parties to do their advertising for them. The AllState commercial I just saw was using all One’s. Too bad most people can’t recognize most phones on sight.
Agree’d 100%. It’s easily the best phone on the market. Not a single complaint or issue.
She stepped down because she was upset that the One Max didn’t include a true multitasking solution…
Abandon ship!
They -could- have turned it around by releasing the HTC One Max with:
Snapdragon 800
3GB of RAM
16/32/64 GB onboard memory options
Included Stylus + UI-related options
Decided to advertise that instead of blowing their load on RDJ (whom I like, but I digress) for a 2 minute commercial that had nothing to do with their products
Selling their products everywhere, instead of responses like Canada got “Meh, HTC One is sufficient for Canada”
They’ve got the design and the ability but they lack the forethought. At this point, I think the only hope is for them to get bought out in order for real change to happen.
most people dont care/know about this. they need to just market the hell out of it
“Personal” *air quotes” reason for departure… As much as I don’t want to admit it, HTC is sinking like a sack of rocks. Lorain departure was deliberate and wise. I would’ve done the same thing. Then again, maybe I would’ve stuck around for the rebound…
So then again, you had a non-post.
Then again may be I was thinking out loud.
Back to pr0n she goes…
she is hot why you leaving baby did HTC hurt you i will kick there ass :)
Overheard from HTC exec: “Our PR is failing? That’s just Wong!”
Haha … stupid. Thanks for the laugh.
If your product is better than the next guys, and same price or cheaper and he is still outselling you, your marketing and naming conventions suck.
…just don’t understand HTC…Their HTC ONE (M7) is a beautiful phone…So why on their HTC ONE MAX did they keep the same specs ( 1.7 Quad-core; Snapdragon 600 )? They should put in th latest: 2.2 GHz Quad-core Snapdragon 800…Then the MAX would have challenged ALL of the latest phones out there…
Maybe she was the Wong person for the job
instead of blaming PR or the lack of it, HTC should remove their management which its seems to compete with rim to see who better at failing…
high prices, bad quality, dubios design choice, outdated specs its many reason why people avoid HTC and looked for other phones.
Sorry, but this is a farce. For a long time, my carrier had the HTC One for cheaper than the S4. The S4 has the same processor as the HTC One, while it had DDR3 RAM instead. The HTC One has a better display, dual front speakers, and a nicer look. How is HTC bad? Many people buy their phones and the reviews are good. Just because they are posting losses doesn’t make them a bad OEM. You seem to mistaken HTC for Blackberry.
It’s one device, and even though it is arguably vastly superior to the S4, the latter is outselling it likely 10 to 1.
PR is huge, and HTC has in the past had terrible PR, so it’s likely she was fighting a losing battle and cut her losses.
HTC has always released quality products imo. The G1 was an HTC phone and that was the first Android ever. The HTC Sensation was good. The MyTouch 4G was solid. The HTC Evo 4G LTE was awesome. Samsung only kicked the tires on their dominance with the Galaxy S2. The Galaxy S1 was so fugly with its software. I do agree PR problems, but my argument is for the phone quality. I haven’t had problems with the HTCs I have or had.
Not commenting on the pedigree of HTC, meerely that they (like others) have put out some terrible handsets and that’s all it takes to create a PR nightmare. Think of all the people who bought or know someone who bought the HTC Thunderbolt… and complained about it. Bad PR of the worst kind, word of mouth.
The Thunderbolt is a Verizon device though. Verizon has problems up the wazoo with phones because they get slow updates, overpriced, and release late. LG released the crappy G2x on T-Mobile and not many people remember that one. Do I use that one example to discount LG’s phone making now adays? Probably not. LG doesn’t market as much as Samsung either. HTC just needs a shakeup at the top for PR issues.
So what you are saying is that LG is not struggling to shake the poor opinion of their products caused by all the past turds they’ve launched?
-_-
smh
Yes, LG’s G2, G, G-Pro, and Nexus 4 have seen good reviews for the most part.
You don’t get it…? HTC’s phones feel like artwork in hands, sleek, heavy, giving a premium feel. I’ve had HTC Desire, DesireX, OneS, Amaze, OneX and now trying for the One. I’ve even had a first-hand experience with samsung’s recycled plastic dung. HTC’s Sense UI is far more helpful, and easier than any other android skin I’ve seen and worked on. When it comes to designing, I prefer HTC. When it comes to specs, even there I prefer HTC. The prices..? They are more or less the same. You get a multitude of materials in HTC’s sets, Aluminium, PolyCarbonate, Plastic, and etc etc. With Samsung, you get plastic, with Sony, you get slim, sleek but not-so-sturdy phones. People complain about buil-in batteries. Man you can easily dis-assemble the unibodys just as easily as a taking off the back cover. When I say artwork, I mean it. HTC’s every new set is unique design. tak for eg the One, and its predecessors OneX and OneX+. All of them the flagship phones, and really giving you a feel that you’ve spent a couple hundred bucks, or as in my country, about 40 to 50 thousand. Compare it with Samsung, crap bodies, good specs, but not the feel you get with HTCs.
That’s unbelievable, in less than 4 months.. Probably she didn’t see any future with HTC and of course, decided to bye-bye HTC for personal reason.
Apparently, family or health issues are not even possibilities in the world of Phandroid commenter wisdom…