HTC’s epic One M9 disaster keeps getting worse

[Victorious Secret]

 

 

Ahh HTC, just when you thought it couldn't possibly get any worse for your company, it does. 

 

HTCs been on the brink for years, the M7 saved their bacon as being one of the first Android devices worth owning, but their bumbling of their finances and future releases has brought them right back to where they were at the tail end of the Windows Phone 6.5 days - staring down probable ruin. 

 

I'd say I wish them a speedy recovery, but not really. They've screwed themselves over far too often. They deserve it, IMHO. 

 

 

 

HTC Corp. fell to the lowest in a decade in Taipei after the smartphone maker cut its sales forecast as much as 35 percent and announced plans to write off NT$2.9 billion ($94 million) of impaired assets.

Shares fell 9.9 percent, the daily limit, to NT$83.60, the lowest since May 2005. Taiwan’s benchmark Taiex gained 0.3 percent.

 

Slower demand for high-end smartphones and weaker sales in China promptedthe Taiwanese company to forecast second-quarter revenue of as low as NT$33 billion, compared with an April 28 forecast for NT$46 billion to NT$51 billion. The lower sales and writedown mean HTC will post a loss for the current quarter, it said.

 

“The magnitude and timing should disappoint the market and deepen investors’ concerns over rapidly deteriorating fundamentals and management credibility,” Morgan Stanley analyst Jasmine Lu wrote in a recent note cited by Bloomberg.

 

That may be understating things. Normally when companies launch a new flagship phone they can at least expect to see a nice boost in revenue, if not profits. However, HTC’s monthly revenues completely crashed in April and May, which were the two months where you’d expect to see a healthy bump because of the launch of the One M9.

 

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-06-08/htc-drops-to-decade-low-after-cutting-quarterly-sales-forecast

http://bgr.com/2015/06/11/htc-one-m9-sales-share-price/

[alexyy]

As a HTC M7 owner I'm kinda sad now because I was waiting for the M9 and it kinda blows now my battery decided to start failing as well.

 

Guess i'll be going for the ZenPhone 

[Sakkura]

I just hope it spurs them on to fix the arguable regressions from the M8 to the M9, and make a kick-ass M10.

 

And of course I hope they do well in VR, but that's probably not going to be a big deal financially at least in the short term.

[Bogica]

Well the HTC One series was a disappointment with each model. Well designed, but sub par camera, overheating problems during the summer and so on...

And their lower end models are utter poop compared to the competition with high prices.

[flibberdipper]

At least it's not as bad as Sears. Apparently their stock was frozen since they were doing so bad. Whatever that means.

[Sauron]

Honestly I see samsung going down the same hole if they don't change their pricing scheme. They have nothing to justify a 700$+ price tag anymore, eventually users will notice. They don't really have apple's name to carry them, or not to nearly the same degree.

[Sidiox]

Poor HTC. They design the one phone I like. I would never take one because it gets scratched so easily but still. 

If they go, at least they set the bar for design a bit higher.

 

Also I see more phone makers getting this problem.

Remember what happened to tablet? At one point everyone had one and they were good enough and didn't need replacing every few months. Now the same thing is happening to smartphones. Even the low end is fairly competent and will last some time, and the mid end is just fine for nearly all users and will last a very long time. People don't buy new phones every year anymore.

[Anult]

Looks like Valve will need to find a different manufacturer for the Vive then, if this news is something to go by.

[harrynowl]

Well this is what happens when you don't have the funds to make new designs.. a bit like AMD.

 

Although I do think HTC should've realised that while their original formula was great; it does mean other people can and will catch up if you make no real improvements, I imagine there's some things they could've done to keep their phone relevant as this year is the first time in a while I feel comfortable recommending a Samsung Galaxy S.

[dragosudeki]

Honestly I see samsung going down the same hole if they don't change their pricing scheme. They have nothing to justify a 700$+ price tag anymore, eventually users will notice. They don't really have apple's name to carry them, or not to nearly the same degree.

If I recall, Samsung supplies Apple with quite a bit of their components. Apple's margin is too great, so Samsung will most likely not go down any time soon.

[Munalos]

Honestly I see samsung going down the same hole if they don't change their pricing scheme. They have nothing to justify a 700$+ price tag anymore, eventually users will notice. They don't really have apple's name to carry them, or not to nearly the same degree.

 

Yeah but at first Samsung was making huge leaps in the smartphone field. Honestly, I got my note 3 in I think December 2013.. I have never looked backed or wanted another smartphone since then, and probably wont for good awhile. It all depends on preference and personally taste. Before I owned the note 3 I owned an original samsung galaxy s HERO. Slide out keyboard + touchscreen? Forget about it. I still use it as a music player for my car.

[carolkarine]

It's incredibly simple to build a great phone.

Good camera, good build quality, stock android. hardware-based image stabilization would be huge too.

[TroubleKlef]

Slower demand for HTC high-end smartphones...

 

fixed.

[Deletive]

Well this is what happens when you don't have the funds to make new designs.. a bit like AMD.

 

Although I do think HTC should've realised that while their original formula was great; it does mean other people can and will catch up if you make no real improvements, I imagine there's some things they could've done to keep their phone relevant as this year is the first time in a while I feel comfortable recommending a Samsung Galaxy S.

They have the funds to make new designs, It just takes years to make a new architecture, test it and work on. Thats why Jim Keller joined back in 2010-2011.

OT: HTC really made a bargin going with the same design again and it really hit them hard. It'll only be next year they can shave themselves with hopefully a new design.

[Sauron]

If I recall, Samsung supplies Apple with quite a bit of their components. Apple's margin is too great, so Samsung will most likely not go down any time soon.

 

yeah, I didn't mean they were going to go bankrupt (they even make ships, I doubt they'll go down anytime soon) but rather that they'd sell less and less flagship phones.

 

Yeah but at first Samsung was making huge leaps in the smartphone field. Honestly, I got my note 3 in I think December 2013.. I have never looked backed or wanted another smartphone since then, and probably wont for good awhile. It all depends on preference and personally taste. Before I owned the note 3 I owned an original samsung galaxy s HERO. Slide out keyboard + touchscreen? Forget about it. I still use it as a music player for my car.

 

The problem is that the note 3 was what, 800$? That's the price for a pc, not a phone. And there isn't much that justifies it either: the 1440p screen at this point is more a gimmick than anything else, and the cpu is just the nth iterative increase that in the end makes very little difference in day to day use. There are not enough good games on android to use the phone as a console (and still, 800$ for a handheld console are way too much) meaning all that power sort of goes to waste, while hindering something that actually matters like battery life. Ultimately it does little more than, say, a zenfone 2 that costs half as much. While the zenfone is a little rough around the edges, I can easily forgive that after sparing 450$. On top of that, the zenfone actually offers something interesting that many others do not: an x86_64 cpu and 4gb of ram. That phone is perfectly capable of running desktop windows 10, or any desktop linux distribution (although for linux a chroot would achieve the same without compromising android) without noticeable hardware limitations. Not something that the avg joe would care about, but the avg joe would be perfectly fine with a 150$ phone.

[Guest Kloaked]

Well this is what happens when you don't have the funds to make new designs.. a bit like AMD.

Although I do think HTC should've realised that while their original formula was great; it does mean other people can and will catch up if you make no real improvements, I imagine there's some things they could've done to keep their phone relevant as this year is the first time in a while I feel comfortable recommending a Samsung Galaxy S.

I think they could have done something, their funding not being an issue. Their phones are lacking compared to other manufacturers and it could have been easily remedied, but they took a chance to cut production costs and it backfired.

That's my understanding anyways.

[harrynowl]

I think they could have done something, their funding not being an issue. Their phones are lacking compared to other manufacturers and it could have been easily remedied, but they took a chance to cut production costs and it backfired.

That's my understanding anyways.

Yep, that is very much my opinion. Although I do think funding came into play still.

[alexyy]

Poor HTC. They design the one phone I like. I would never take one because it gets scratched so easily but still. 

If they go, at least they set the bar for design a bit higher.

 

 

Owned mine for over a year barley scratched at all and I don't own a case.

[ClakeyD]

At least it's not as bad as Sears. Apparently their stock was frozen since they were doing so bad. Whatever that means.

I work at Sears... It's real real bad. They are about to close another 110 stores. More to follow. Rip poorly ran company.

[flibberdipper]

I work at Sears... It's real real bad. They are about to close another 110 stores. More to follow. Rip poorly ran company.

My dad works in the auto department of the one in the local mall. He's getting ready to jump ship and go to Muffler Man, I think.

[Suika]

And to think, I was excited for the M9. What a shame.

[Bensemus]

And to think, I was excited for the M9. What a shame.

whos your avatar?

[PillowSmoke]

It's incredibly simple to build a great phone.

Good camera, good build quality, stock android. hardware-based image stabilization would be huge too.

 

I don't think it's that simple, if it was then there won't be other companies.

[Aniallation]

Guess i'll be going for the ZenPhone 

ZenFone 2? 

 

It was overhyped. Screen is meh, camera is meh, battery life is poor. 

 

Move on.

[No Nrg]

Owned an M7 for over two years and love it. It's really a well designed phone, and durable too. No case ever, dropped a couple times, no issues. Having fron-facing stereo speakers on a phone has ruined all other phones for me.

 

Was waiting on the M9 as the next revolutionary step for upgrade, but it fell well short of expectations, not even really an upgrade over my current M7. 

 

I'm buying an LG G4 this weekend. I'll miss the speakers, but not the crap camera.