At the end of February, I wrote a little piece on how HTC was pretty much screwed with the One M9 since they failed to capitalize when Samsung was more vulnerable. Now the numbers are in proving my prediction.
The One M9 debuted at the beginning of April so you would think that HTC might have gotten a little boost, but they didn’t even get that. Their revenue for the entire month plummeted by almost 40% to NT$13.54 billion ($439.95 million US) from NT$22.07 last year. If you compare it to the previous month, the drop is 32.36 percent since March posted NT$20.02 billion.
The reason for this dismal performance is obviously the One M9. It’s in the third generation, and HTC decided to keep things the same even though the first two generations never set the world on fire. Some analysts are saying that the Snapdragon 810 could be the culprit, but that has nothing to do with it. People aren’t excited about the phone, and the mainstream consumer doesn’t even know about the 810 controversy.
What’s even worse is that the current estimates show that the One M9 won’t even sell as well as the previous generation M7 and M8 models. HTC sold 7 million and 8 million units respectively, but the target for the M9 is only 4.5 million units.
I feel bad for HTC. I do like them as a company, but they lack focus in the marketing department and pretty much everywhere within the company. They recently launched and even better phone, the M9+, before the M9 got off the ground. How crazy is that? The recent promotion of Cher Wang to CEO could be positive, but is it too late? Unfortunately I think HTC is in serious trouble.
source: Taipei Times
Come comment on this article: Not surprising: HTC revenue plummeted in April due to lack of demand for the One M9
Visit TalkAndroid for Android news, Android guides, and much more!
