Mikey Campbell
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.Â
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.Â
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.Â
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.
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
AppleInsider Staff
Chip Loder
Malcolm Owen
14 Comments
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.
It's the new HTC Done
[URL=http://forums.appleinsider.com/image/id/169065/width/480/height/302][IMG]http://forums.appleinsider.com/image/id/169065/width/480/height/302[/IMG][/URL]
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. [quote name="Quadra 610" url="/t/150860/htc-halts-all-phone-sales-in-brazil#post_2132901"]Lost in a sea of Android flotsam and jetsam. [/quote] [quote name="Tallest Skil" url="/t/150860/htc-halts-all-phone-sales-in-brazil#post_2132905"]That's what happens when you make 50 models a quarter.[/quote] With so many models I'm surprised there hasn't been an HTC Flotsam and HTC Jetsam.