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HTC

HTC launched the get-go two Android smartphones as part of a close partnership with Google back in 2008 and 2009, and for a time it was one of the top Android device makers. It was later eclipsed past Samsung, LG, and more recently Chinese firms like Huawei. Subsequently struggling recently, analysts at BayStreet Research are now predicting HTC won't even bother to launch a flagship smartphone in the US next year. The rationale for this prediction is surprisingly conceivable.

The Taiwan-based smartphone maker is in the midst of a radical restructuring after reporting a quaternary consecutive quarter of big losses. Its Q3 2016 earnings were about $60 million in the red, which is actually an improvement over the last few quarters. That's how dire things accept gotten at HTC.

The changes come as the company's 2016 flagship, the HTC 10 has failed to sell in meaning numbers. The unfortunate thing is that the HTC 10 isn't a bad phone. It a lot of ways, information technology'due south really a very nice device. All the same, the price was far too high (fifty-fifty college than the GS7) and HTC lacked the marketing muscle to really push information technology. T-Mobile, which is known for ditching underperforming devices in its lineup, discontinued sales of the HTC x after just three months.

Co-ordinate to BayStreet Research'south Cliff Maldonado, the lackluster operation of the HTC 10 may have been the final straw for HTC. Maldonado reports that HTC last calendar month fired virtually all of its sales force. These are the people who would work to forge deals with carriers to sell HTC's branded telephone hardware. Without that sales apparatus, information technology's unlikely HTC would be able to focus on getting its devices on multiple Usa carriers. That could point to HTC's render to the less glamorous world of ODM (original design manufacturer) electronics.

htc gs7

HTC 10 and Milky way S7

The deal HTC has with Google to build the Pixel is an example of an ODM organisation. HTC builds the hardware to Google's specifications, and Google brands information technology however it wants. One step removed from this is the deal HTC has with Sprint to make the HTC Bolt. In this case, it's sectional to Sprint and the carrier has a lot of say in the hardware, merely it's branded as an HTC device. Both deals guarantee HTC a sure amount of revenue and limits its gamble. This is the kind of concern HTC ran in the past, and now Maldonado says it'due south headed back that way.

It's possible HTC will notwithstanding endeavour to make its ain branded phones, only Maldonado does not believe they will exist sold in the United states of america market, which has shown piffling interest in HTC's products. Without a carrier partner to sell the devices, information technology'southward simply non worth the endeavor.