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Friday, June 22, 2012, 07:45 pm
HTC halts all phone sales in Brazil
Taiwanese handset maker HTC on Friday announced that it would be pulling out of the Brazilian market entirely amid poor performance that has resulted in a plummeting share of the global smartphone market.An HTC representative told AndroidPIT that the company will be "completely shutting down their operations in Brazil" effective immediately, stopping wholesale device sales and axing "dozens" of jobs.
"After analyzing the sales numbers, we have decided to pull out of the Brazilian market," the spokesman said.
It was reported in April that HTC saw year-over-year profits drop some 70 percent in the first quarter of 2012 on slow North American sales. At one point the company made more than 50 percent of its revenue from the U.S. but aggressive competition from Apple's iPhone and Android handsets quickly ate into HTC's profits. Later that same month the handset maker's CEO Peter Chou specifically cited the iPhone 4S as being a major contributor to HTC's troubles in the smartphone market.
While Brazil is a developing wireless market and smartphone use is on the rise, it seems that HTC can't keep up with high-end handset makers who continuously roll out new products. The company was on the verge of releasing the new HTC One handset in the region and has yet to update its Brazilian website which still advertises the device.
Interestingly Chou recently told The Wall Street Journal that HTC intends to be competitive in emerging markets but at the same time announced the company is halting the manufacture of so-called "budget phones." It is unclear why HTC would choose to focus on the development of higher-priced smartphones in a market all but dominated by major players Apple and Samsung, which together are expected to own over half of the worldwide market in 2013.
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Previous Comments View All
That's what happens when you make 50 models a quarter.
I always hate to see companies fail but I hate, slightly more, to see the weak propped up with poor products and poor business decisions.
From a business standpoint (read: excluding any evaluation of ethics) Samsung deserves it's handset profits, and I hope MS can make WinPh work because it is a good OS.
Lost in a sea of Android flotsam and jetsam.
That's what happens when you make 50 models a quarter.
With so many models I'm surprised there hasn't been an HTC Flotsam and HTC Jetsam.
Lost in a sea of Android flotsam and jetsam.
It is absolute HELL if you're trying to achieve any level of differentiation.
In any case, I don't really care. These dime-a-dozen Android OEMs get no sympathy from me. They had their own opportunities, just like Apple.
HTC, LG, Sony, Huawei . . . at the end of the day, all the same sh*t. Samsung appears to be achieving *some* level of differentiation, but they're still fooling around with Android, expending effort on aping Apple whenever possible, and churning out devices with lousy build quality. It seems that they're just better at flooding the market with more units. I doubt any of the other Android OEMs have Samsung's production capacity.
Speaking of Samsung, after Siri's plug for their fridges at the opening of the WWDC I was curious and checked them out. Pretty nice from what I could tell. They seemed well differentiated from GE etc.. Not that I'm all that up on such things except getting the beer out of them. Loved the lighting inside!
But they make Android handsets, kk?
The reason they're out of Brazil first is the same reason why Apple was in Brazil last -- you have to have a Brazilian factory to avoid the tariffs. Your sales can't just be good, they have to be enough to support a factory to stay in that market.
But they make Android handsets, kk?
The reason they're out of Brazil first is the same reason why Apple was in Brazil last -- you have to have a Brazilian factory to avoid the tariffs. Your sales can't just be good, they have to be enough to support a factory to stay in that market.
This. Someone finally nailed it.
HTC Gone?
Why are you excluding ethics?
If I rob a bank and it is well planned and executed, do I deserve the money?
Greed and other baser instincts have taken over the world. Witness the 2008
financial debacle leaving 20 million jobless.
There is no place for sentences like "(excluding ethics)" in civilized society.
HTC make some nice handsets, too bad they can't compete with TouchWiz and Samsung's overhyped marketing.
The One X and Galaxy S3 have essentially the same specs with only minor differences.
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Lost in a sea of Android flotsam and jetsam.
It is absolute HELL if you're trying to achieve any level of differentiation.
In any case, I don't really care. These dime-a-dozen Android OEMs get no sympathy from me. They had their own opportunities, just like Apple.
HTC, LG, Sony, Huawei . . . at the end of the day, all the same sh*t. Samsung appears to be achieving *some* level of differentiation, but they're still fooling around with Android, expending effort on aping Apple whenever possible, and churning out devices with lousy build quality. It seems that they're just better at flooding the market with more units. I doubt any of the other Android OEMs have Samsung's production capacity.