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.
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.
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
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.
With so many models I'm surprised there hasn't been an HTC Flotsam and HTC Jetsam.
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!
Quote:
but aggressive competition from Apple's iPhone and Android handsets quickly ate into HTC's profits.
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.
Quote:
Originally Posted by rufwork
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.
Assuming this is a response to my comment I'm excluding ethics because it isn't germane to Samsung's quarterly earnings, it's just my opinion about their actions.
If you rob a bank and it's very clever heist I will not say your heist was not clever, unique, daring etc. simply because it's illegal. I don't think you deserve the money and neither does the law but that doesn't mean other parts of your actions can't be admitted for their specific merits.
Is it unethical to drive above the speed limit even by one mile per hour? The law says it's illegal to exceed the speed limit but I'm guessing you wouldn't say it's unethical yet it's wrong to break the law? What about when the law is wrong? Is it right to take a stand against it? This country (and many others) are founded on breaking the law. Was slavery and all other civil rights movement unethical because they broke the law or was the law? I'm sure I know your answer to that.
Regardless of what you or I think is right or wrong from a business standpoint Samsung seems to have made the right choice to increase their profit and future profit in the handset market. I doubt any penalty they may face will make them worse off for it.
Just wait till you seen Samsung's new toaster-fridges.
Didn't you see the post from Tallest Skill? It's called The Froaster
www.youtube.com/watch?v=qT9MBwCyLwg