HTC Plans To Manufacture Cheap Smartphones Targeted Towards Emerging Markets As Revenues Drop

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HTC, the Taiwanese smartphone vendor is well known in the smartphone arena for its popular Desire and One lineup and also for its Windows Phone 8 offerings. Unfortunately, high-end handsets made by HTC became a rarity pretty soon despite of all wonderful traits.

 

According to a recent Reuters report, HTC is planning to switch its focus towards cheaper smartphones that are oriented towards emerging markets as it loses more ground to Apple and Samsung.

 

Recently, HTC announced its Q1 revenue forecast expecting figures to be 17% lower than the previous quarter, which is worse than analysts had predicted. Although it has launched a number of impressive smartphones powered by both Android and Windows Phone, the company does not seem to compete with Apple and Samsung.

Moreover, HTC's fortunes have been quickly declining since Q2 2011 and like other smartphone manufacturers, it's struggling to claim a significant share of the market, which is highly dominated by Apple's iPhone and Samsung's Galaxy smartphones. As of now, HTC is targeting on China to acquires some growth.

However, the Chinese consumer base are price-conscious, which means that HTC has to change its approach. Instead of offering high-end smartphones that are priced heftily, the Taiwanese tech giant might have to switch to budget handsets that come with decent specifications.

Switching to cheaper smartphones does not mean that HTC will give up on high-end handsets. The company will continue making advanced devices with superior specifications, but it may not launch flagship smartphones every few months.

The report states, HTC Chief Financial Officer Chang Chia-Lin claiming that "We're going to go down, but not below 1,000 yuan (INR 8,500)," in a conference. "We see there's still room to play" in 1,000 to 2,000 yuan phones.
Hence, HTC fans in India can expect to see a few cheaper models selling around Rs 8,500 in the nation. As of now, HTC has older models selling at this price range such as HTC Explorer, which have experienced several price cuts.

However, it is speculated that HTC will unveil its upcoming flagship smartphone M7 on February 19. The handset is rumored to have a 1080p display, Sense 5.0 UI, new ultrapixel camera and more. Hopefully, this high-end smartphone with the likes of similar offerings could fare well in the global smartphone arena.

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