HTC profits collapse 70% in face of competition from Apple, Samsung - Page 2

I'm with you - suspect alot of HTC's problems arose from making crappy products. I've bought my last one.

They heard you before you spoke. This year they are releasing three phones - one in each of three different price brackets.

Problem is, they will probably be repackaged at request of US carriers and will look like 10 phones instead of three.

That is what apple did well limiting themselves to one carrier in the beginning. A new phone would not have had the clout to not be branded and made different by multiple carriers. By the time they dropped their exclusivity, they were in such demand that apple called the shots, not the carriers.

There, you just made Motorola cry. Are you happy now?

Strange to see so much negativity about HTC here, of all the Android manufacturers they were one of very few that actually tried to make more of their phones than just the generic crap that most of the others sell, or the iPhone clone business that Samsung runs. HTC had some very nice designs, usually good hardware, and their Sense skin was actually pretty tolerable and not a complete rip-off of something else. For example the Legend was actually a very nice phone, one of the only phones to date that had an aluminum uni-body design. Sadly their last few phones got progressively worse.

I don't really see myself buying an Android phone any time soon, but if I were forced to choose one, it would probably be a HTC. Samsung is now officially the only Android vendor left that actually makes a profit off of Android, but if you ask me, they are the one company that least deserves to. The only reason they are doing well is because of the enormous scale and volume they are shifting, not because they actually tried anything innovative. Except the Galaxy Note maybe, you could call that monstrosity 'innovative', just not in a good way.

HTC was good at the start from windows mobile phones to android. Lately they sucked but their HTC One is looking to be a great phone

It's Apple's old slogan, circa 1984, "The computer for the rest of us"

(I meant to imply that Samsung wants to be like Apple so bad, they would even imitate Apple's old slogans)

@geysernuts -- You nailed it!

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That is one attractive phone indeed!

HTC: a new model every week, re-branding of similar model, etc.

It's the same crap, recycled. Typical Android OEM.

Undifferentiated hardware running an undifferentiated OS (apart from its lousy quality compared to iOS.)

*yawn*

Who didn't see this sh** coming!

Survival of THE FITTEST Award goes to... Apple!

Apple is iDoomed.

Apple is Bruce Lee.

LOL. Bruce says, "who's next?"

They're getting there One X & One S are their new models, nice phones with s chassis like the Nokia's and a SIM drawer for the MicroSIM, they've improved the camera focussing on more than just megapixels.

It's make or break time for them.

Ah yes, "Presenting the new Samsung Crapple!"

[QUOTE=jz1492;2090229]Beleaguered Motorola and HTC were first with Android, yet Samsung is the one soaring in the marketplace without a commensurate marketing effort.

Which goes a long way to prove that the more they copy Apple, the better their chances of prevailing --until they lose in court, that is.


For starters, they will likely pay Apple for every lost profit dollar by infringing on Apple's patents. Samsung will not be allowed to profit from their crime. Then there will be a penalty as well, which could be up to three-fold the profit damages. Finally, Samsung could end up being watched by the court for some time to prevent any hint of a new infringement. This will tend to stifle innovation if the court needs to see what they are planning on doing.

The longer the case goes on, and the more Samsung profits from sales, the bigger the final check they need to write.

Oh, and if some of the infringements came from the Android software, Samsung has recourse to sue Google for losses. So, from not making money, Google can go to losing money on Android.

Finally, if some of the infringement is in the Android software, Apple can just go to the other 35 phone manufacturers and sue easily showing prior court decisions... leaving Google to be the payee at the end of the line.

Agreed. It looks like they make a decision to focus and differentiate, and it looks like they've done a pretty nice job of that.

The question is whether or not we've already passed a tipping point where "Samsung = Android" in the mind of the average buyer. Or maybe more accurately "Galaxy = Android."

That's the problem with being an Android licensee, there's only so much you can do to make yourself stand out. Samsung has the money to advertise heavily, HTC does not. At some point you enter a death spiral, no matter how nice your pretty much just like the other Android phones are.

And in doing so, they've eliminated the microSD slot and made the battery not user-replaceable.

I dunno. I own an HTC Vision (aka Tmobile G2), and it was its utilitarian and enthusiast-friendly features that made me choose it over all of the other android phones out there. The one series, while nicely designed, loses a lot of these features, and thus loses a lot of its appeal over the Samsungs and Motorolas out there.

for me at least.

it works on the latest Samsung models. practically the same as DLNA, just branded. not up to AirPlay standards.

I've seen no SW service from Samsung that is close to Apple's level of competency, but in all fairness SwipeIt is still new. AirPlay is an evolution of AirTunes which debuted nearly 8 years ago in June 2004, and AirPlay has been around for nearly 2 years now. I think we just got mirroring with iOS 5.0. Wow! It's been that long!

Nah, but having taste and $200 buys you an iPhone.

Indeed it is! I bought a One X about a week ago and I love it. I used to love my iPhone but the screen is just too small, in my opinion anyway.

I might look at the next iPhone if the screen is much bigger but for now I will stick with the One X. Also, it's nice to change little things like a SMS tone without having to hack my phone and I can schedule my work exchange email account!

After everything you said, it still fails, because it's based on the above assumption. You are thinking in terms of mobile people on the go or just healthy ones. There are tens of millions of people who come home from work and plop down in front of their TV set in the living room. There are millions more who because of disabilities do this out of necessity of being immobile. There are tens of millions of senior citizens (we like gadgets too) who live for the programs on their large screen televisions. I have three sisters all over 65 and I can tell you that TV is their life and it isn't in their kitchen (no offense). Apple sells its products to hundreds of millions of people. I would think your family and circle of friends are much smaller. My iMac is the "Window to my World" because of congestive heart failure but I hope I live long enough to enjoy one of these large screen Apple television sets so I can blend my computing with the TV and control them wirelessly, although in my case it will go in my bedroom.

+1

five chars.

It won't matter. Here's why.

Ask the average consumer, say, your mom or grand kids or that barista that makes your coffee to name a HTC phone and one outstanding feature of it, could they? Now ask them to name and Apple phone an one outstanding feature of it, could they?

HTC's marketing slogan is "quietly brilliant". Maybe they should learn how to make some noise.

They'd better learn or soon they'll have to change their slogan to "Quickly Broke".

It's fine that you don't like Android but calling it crap is childish at best. I use an Android phone because I can do things on it that I can't with a iPhone. That doesn't mean I think the iPhone is crap, far from it. It's a wonderful phone that appeals to a lot of people who like simplicity and elegance. However it is also a very locked system and doesn't even begin to offer the freedom that an open source OS brings. It's for some not for everyone so please reframe from calling things you don't like crap.

As far as HTC is concerned they just released three fantastic new phones to the market. Their also discontinuing many other of their phones in their repatuer while only focusing on the few. I think this is a good business plan and will hopefully bring forth fruit. Seriously have you seen their new flagship, fricken amazing.

Can you tell me how the battery life is on it. I've heard it can easily survive an entire workday but I'm pretty hard on my phones as I'm literally on it all the time, can you tell me how good you think it is.

Yes I completely agree it's time for Apple to move to a larger screen size. It will happen though I have no doubt.

That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever read. You do realize that OSX and iOS is based off of a free OS, does BSD mean anything to you. The entire internet is ran from servers running free operating systems. Some of the best software in the world is free, Apache, MySQL, Samba, Linux, OpenOffice, VLC, every programming language on the planet.

I get fantastic battery life but I dont play any games etc like some other people do. I left it off charge for 15 hours the other day and it only went down to 73%.

Also, nice to have a proper notification light! It's very close to the top of the case so very obvious to see.

I could never go back to a 3.5" screen now, in fact my work gave me a 4S but I used it for one day and it now sits in my office. Everything else in my house is nearly Apple but phonewise I can't see myself going away from Android for a while...but then again I thought the same thing about the iPhone a year ago lol.

That (flash) website is full of broken links, but I found out they have a deal with Dropbox: free 25GB for two years*.

I think a move like that will entice some folks. The hardware? I don't know, I'll keep on enjoying my iPhone - probably 4ever.

*Offer only available on HTC One series phones. Offer not available in China.

Specs:
Size: \t134.36 x 69.9 x 8.9 mm
Weightt130 grams with battery
DisplaytHD 720p touch
Screent4.7-inch (1280 x 720 resolution)

Most of the comments in this forum are childish at best and with 1727 posts I'm sure this doesn't surprise you The iPhone is a great phone but it's shame some people can't see the value in something that doesn't come from Apple.

Apple really need to lift their game with the next iPhone though and I am sure they will. I was showing my coworkers my One X the other day and someone put it next to their 4S and said "wow, it makes the iPhone look old fashioned".

I guess that's why the bottom has dropped out of HTC's profits. No doubt this phone will completely turn things around.

I admit I'm bemused by the people who are always explaining to us stupid fanboys why Apple "must" do this or that. Or what? Continue to make all the money while the extra amazing spec kings go out of business?

An HTC fan, at this point, is like an Apple enthusiast during the very worst of Apple's darkest days, exclaiming over the latest Performa or whatever and declaring that Microsoft or Del or Compaq had better get with the program and answer in kind. Just delusional, in other words.

You're right actually and probably what I (assume you were talking about me) should have said was, I hope Apple lift their game. Anyway thats my perspective but there are millions of happy iPhone customers out there so they are obviously doing something right.

To get me back they will need to do something special in the next iPhone though.

Fair enough, you certainly are entitled to your preferences.

My guess is that the next iPhone will have a somewhat larger screen without having a much larger case, because Apple has strong feelings about what works best for one-handed operation and mobility. They'll probably rework the case design in general just because they do that from time to time.

I think anyone waiting for some kind of eye-popping rethink of iOS is in for a long wait, however. Android has changed a lot because it wasn't very good when it was released and has basically gone through it beta releases in public. Apple tends to spend a lot of time getting the fundamentals nailed and then iterates evolutionarily, until they're ready for the something completely different.

Classic Mac OS, OS X and the iPod all saw (and are seeing) modest updates to their chrome and functionality over the years while maintaining a basic look and feel and idiom. I don't think the dread "static screen of apps" is somehow going to morph into a diverting light show, and I don't think Apple is going to adopt any kind of "live tile" deal-- simply because I have no doubt something similar was tried and discarded during the original design phase.

I'm surprised when people complain about "boring" home screens and the like-- I use my phone to do stuff, not gaze lovingly at the OS. I'm never more than a few taps away from the app I want to use, which suits me fine.

It's a shame that people will not chose something because it came from Apple.

Take Relic who just a few days ago said she got rid of her iPhone because everyone had one. Does that sounds like a rational reason to change your digital ecosystem? She then followed up with an anecdote how she's converted a dozen women from the iPhone over the Galaxy Note so it's hard to take the combined comments seriously. It's too bad she's married or I'd hook her up with DaHarder.

I was going to comment on your comment, but then I caught myself.

I have as much chance of convincing you as you convincing me (iPhone vs. Note).

So in the end, we can simply just agree to disagree.

Just for kicks, I checked some Android tablets at Staples. They had some Asus, Acer, Samsung and company (Archos, etc.) on display.

The first thing I noticed is the oddness of the 16x9 ratio of the Galaxy 10. The Iconia seemed too thick and heavy. The Transformer felt like a laptop display without a keyboard. The Archos had no power, so I couldn't really examine it. Except for the Samsung, the other felt cheap and outdated.

Perhaps more disturbing is the Android interface. I can't quite explain it, but I think even Windows is easier to navigate.

For all the Android fans out there, keep buying whatever it is that you prefer and meet your needs. This is my personal assessment and in no way meant to persuade anyone to consider Apple products.

16:9 is a very odd aspect ratio for a tablet. I was saying that around 4:3 was the most appropriate size well before the iPad debuted.

I agree that Win8 looks like a better option for consumers over Android, but is it a better option over iOS for iPad? I think WIn8 for tablets could fall into the same pitfalls as Win7 for Windows Phone. It's good OS, but it's not good enough to choose over the iPhone.

The problem for MS is that the iPad dominate this market, but the benefit for MS is that the "iPad market" is still very new. MS was very last in getting Win Phone to market. Now I think MS should have focused on a tablet OS first that could have been competed with the iPad when people were still saying "but what's it for" and "how do I use it without a file manager". That ship has long since sailed.

Win8 is a step backwards in usability from WIn7, at least for desktop users. MS is taking a huge risk here. I think they should have kept the portable touchscreen devices together and the desktop and notebook devices together, just as Apple does. If my experience with the Win8 beta is any indication then users will flock will to Macs faster than they did with Windows Vista.

I wouldn't be surprised if these things happen this year:

1. Apple introduces a new Mac focused campaign.
2. Apple announces a change in accounting for Macs so OS X updates can be delivered free of charge on a yearly cycle.
3. MS will put back the Start button in Win8 without requiring a 3rd-party tool to do so.

You can put me down all you want, I've dealt with likes of you before and it's a normal reaction for insecure men. I just want you to know that I still think your a swell person and I hope everything works out for you in life.

Plus I've said this before, it's only Apples mobile line that I have a problem with. The rest is just peachy in my book.