By 
It’s Friday the 13th and it seems only fitting we’d hear some bad news traveling through the wire. We were hoping it wouldn’t come to this, but struggling smartphone maker HTC announced today that they’ve begun laying off some of their US-based workforce. Nothing of Motorola-level proportions mind you, but out of 150 employees and contractors, about 30 of them were let go — that’s about 20% of ex-HTC workers suddenly out of a job.
It’s not all bad news, HTC says the move was just as much a cost cutting measure, as it was a “decisive action” to help them streamline their operations. Less cooks in the kitchen means HTC can greater “improve decision making” and while it sounds like press release fluff, there could be some truth behind it.
Don’t forget it was only a few months back we saw the abrupt exit of several “high level” HTC execs. This latest development doesn’t bode well for HTC who seems to be facing unexpectedly low sales numbers of their latest flagship device — the HTC One — despite being well reviewed around the tech blogs. HTC also dropped a boat load of money on an expensive new ad campaign featuring Robert Downey Jr. to help fuel brand recognition. Without money coming in, cost cutting measures were expected.
As for the employees that received the bad news today, HTC says they’ll be working with them to ensure they have the resources they need to help “bridge them to their next opportunity”. No matter your Android vendor affiliation, it’s never fun to read news like this. We, at Phandroid, wish these employees the best of luck and hope this isn’t the beginning of future bad news for HTC and their employees.
I predicted on Reddit that HTC might be bought by another company, my guess was Xiaomi. I can definitely see that happening in the near future, with HTC’s profits going down, and bad decisions made by Peter Chou.
Cool story.
They should understand that Micro sd and removable battery are very important features, they like to be stubborn and that will be their downfall at the end.
So you’re saying that LG, Motorola, HTC and even Google themselves(Nexus) will all fail, and that Samsung will be the only OEM in business? I take it you only use Samsung phones……
LG did release some of their new Android with Micro SD and Removable Battery with the Optimus G Plus and the korean version of the G2. You can’t deny that the sales of their phones weren’t like the Samsung Phones. How hard for them to have them??
I do understand their intention to impose the cloud and forcing the customers to buy new phones after their batteries die.
I’m still using the first Galaxy Note and probably will take the Note3. The only complaints I have with them are the UI is crap and full of useless apps. Hopefully Cyanogen Mod is there to balance everything or if not I’ll be probably with Xiaomi lolz
haha, me too, note1 waiting for the note 3, using my third battery to do so.
Impose the cloud may work in long term in the US but where I live (Brazil) with slow and unstable conections … it’s not an option.
Force us to pay new phones because of the battery, I think regular users aren’t that clueless cause I heard Iphone users complain about the absence of removable battery.
iPhone doesn’t have neither of the both, yet it sells like crazy. I don’t think removable batteries or SD-cards are the future. They’ll be replaced with bigger flash memories and maybe the cloud.
But until people can be sure they have good reception EVERYWHERE, and No longer have to worry about data limits, SD-cards are very important for those who are heavy media users, like movies and music.
That’s why the phones come 32/64 GB version and some OEMs start to produce 128GB flash memories for phones.
Yes. But 16Gb is just not enough. And there are more and more people who start running out of storage space with 64Gb too. 128Gb is cool, but any phone having that would be much more expensive now, and not common yet . With a cheap SD-cards, I can pop in a 64Gb card in my 64Gb phone, and even, like I do, carry an extra SD-card in my case. That gives me 192Gb. good luck finding a phone with that kind of internal storage anytime soon.
I know I won’t find. But most people won’t run out of storage with 64GB, let alone with 128GB. Not all are as power user as you ;)
Most people are ok with 32GB.
Yes, videos will become 4k and will need more space, pictures will have more MP and need more space too. But that’s what will drive OEMs to make even bigger flash memories,(the next being probably 256GB).
SD-Cards are dying, IMHO.
Believe me, more and more people start running out with 64. If not, there wouldn’t be a need for the OEMs to start making bigger storage in the first place, would there?
I agree that in the future SD-cards will probably disappear, and cloud storage will be the main storage solution for all. Thing is though, we don’t live in the future yet. In this present, with these circumstances (reception and data limits), Sd-cards are a very welcome solution to a lot of people. So for the moment, the technology is not dying yet. It’s very much alive and kicking and will be for a good while still.
Before ditching some technology, thevnVdre first should be a GOOD, USABLE FOR ALL, alternative.
HTC has 64 gb? Very nice
edit: how come I didn’t know that? Because it’s only for AT&T, which I’m not interested in. Way to go again, HTC…
It’s your problem that you’re not interested.
And it’s their problem for not having 64GB One on all carriers and worldwide.
Yes iphone rules! But most of apple customerss doesnt care the specs,guess what?THE BRAND! Call theme apple zombies hahaha
I know that it’s the brand, but they could complain about not having an SD-card if it was really a problem.
If you’re an iOS user your only choice is the iPhone. HTC has too much competition within Android to limit their phones like that. The people who want SD cards and removable batteries will opt for another Android manufacturer.
The iOS user wasn’t always an iOS user. He/She came from a feature phone with high probability that their feature phone had an SD-Card slot and they had everything stored there. They are all ok with iPhone now and non of them complains about not having an SD-Card slot. If they do, they can simply change their phone with buying one with an SD slot.
I do rely on SD-Card now, because of the very limited storage of my old HTC (1.5GB flash memory).
I’m sure my next phone probably won’t have an SD-Card slot and I’m ok with it, because phone’s flash memories are getting bigger(there are already some 128GB memories produced by Samsung, and other phones come with 8GB at least).
Most Apple users would never consider buying an Android phone. Apple force feeds them and they accept it. It’s almost a cult like devotion. On the other hand Android users have a ton a options to choose from and the lack of an SD card and/or removable battery could lead some away from a particular phone. I have a lot of media stored on my S4’s SD card and I like going from 5% battery life to 100% within a few seconds. It would be hard for me to buy a phone without those 2 key features.
It depends on the end user. But the market shows, most people can live without the features that are deal-breakers for You. So I don’t think HTC will loose a lot of customers only because of sd-card slot lack and the lack of removable battery. Many OEMs are now following the trend of unibody design therefor ditching removable batteries and SD-Card storage.
Yes, I ordered a new battery for my phone, because the one in it is now about 2.5 years old(if I count from the day the phone was manufactured) and it needs to be replaced. But many people make 2 year contracts with carriers(I don’t do that, I always had unlocked phones) so they’re going to change their phones after 2 years anyway. The batter tech is getting better and better so the batteries should not die as soon as my phone’s battery died.
For people who want to have a lot of capacity, there are always this battery banks(is this the right name for it?) which will give you more capacity. For me, I don’t see any difference spending money on a battery bank or a battery, of course, if your phone’s native battery is still healthy.
I hope, I wrote everything good understandable, because English is my third language so I’m not perfect at it yet :)
It’s not the brand. It’s the ecosystem.
Android has almost 80% market share, yes some people still buy iPhone like California and New York vote Democrats like real sheeps.
Tell me, what happen if your phone is broke, can you have the files back?? I don’t know for you, it’s not everywhere we can have reception and unlimited data. In Canada, until Verizon arrives here and have their infrastructures ready. We’re not gonna see unlimited data everywhere like in the US.
I’m in Germany and I don’t have the best reception too. That’s why there are PC’s. I do have an SD-Card in my HTC Desire S, but I move all music/pictures/videos/docs from it to my computer, so I’ll have them saved somewhere. The really old pics that I won’t need that often are always on the cloud. The pictures older than 2 years are deleted from cloud and PC.
Exactly, music used to take up space but I use Rhapsody now. Pictures used to take up space but all mine go to either Dropbox, Facebook or Picasa. The only space I use on my phone is for applications and games are the biggest space eaters. Nobody likes to have to uninstall things to make room but having 26 gigs of space to work with it’s pretty roomy for me just for applications.
No, they are not very important features. They are features I would like, but I’m good without them. I’ve said this to many people before you who claim a lack of micro sd and removable battery is the cause of HTC’s downfall. There are many factors that play against HTC, and there are things HTC did wrong.
1) Lack of advertising by HTC. Pretty self explanatory.
2) HTC only makes one thing: smartphones. The rest of Android’s smartphone manufacturers make a wide array of different things, from washing machines to TV’s. Those companies (Samsung, Sony, Motorola, Apple, etc.) can definitely afford some breathing room in case they have a bad year, or if they need to pull some cash from their other products, they can do that. For HTC, one bad year, is one bad year. There isn’t any breathing room for them. I’ve only touched the tip of what it means to HTC by making only smartphones.
3) Lack of a popular following. With HTC, there isn’t much “fan boys” or active followers of HTC as compared to Samsung or Apple, and that’s mainly because of the lack of advertising. Much people associate an Android phone either as a “Droid” (thanks Motorola) or a “Galaxy” phone. Not much would think HTC = Android. HTC did take some good steps toward this goal of brand recognition with the One branding, but it’ll take a lot more for that to happen.
Honestly, I think it’s silly to assume that a lack of a micro sd slot and no removable battery is the reason for HTC’s failure. Not only does every other manufacturer other than Samsung not have those features, but it hasn’t really been the drive for the sale of phones (eg the iPhone). Also, you don’t hear much about the failing quarters from other companies like Sony, and that could be from reason #2. Would having a removable battery and a micro sd card slot help HTC? Sure it will. Will it save them? Doubt it.
Most excellent points.. As you said, the others are highly diversified meaning mobile phones will only make or break HTC.
I never understood why go beyond 32/64, as with the HTC One. That sure is a lot from the start. I look at it this way, how manageable are data even at that level or beyond? I work fulltime and there’s no way I can possibly listen to all the music that some propose to have. Can’t watch the movies while I work because then, I’m not working. Please keep in mind I’m not cheering cloud storage as well, but that said, these phones aren’t usb drives.
Removable battery? Always hated it. Why??? Ever since ICS, android had become a serious contender to iOS and the level of polishing android brought to Jellybean has far surpassed them. Its only time that flagship device’s hardware caught up. To me, besides the craptastic plastic, the removable battery always cheapened the product. Never mind the phone hitting the ground and all the scrapes it would get, but the embarrassing having to chase the damn phone in three parts/three directions: phone, battery cover, and finally battery (order doesn’t matter here but you get my point).
I have the HTC One and this phone gets me thru the day plenty. Though I’m a heavy-moderate user, I’ll end up with 30-40 percent life at the end of 12 hours and have to recharge by the 16th hour. This tells me that those Manu’s who are going the nonremoveable route are addressing the issue and will improvingly do so, at least until batteries have caught up with technology.
Until they can put out a phone that rivals the battery life of the Droid Maxx, the removable battery issue won’t really be an issue anymore. As for sdcard slots, until manufacturers can give us at least 32gb of USABLE space, that really won’t be much of an issue. But since they can’t, Samsung has provided the alternative and equipped their phones with the removable batteries and expandable storage and that is why I will keep going to Samsung for the foreseeable future
You have great points. Personally I had the Nexus1 and I can tell you that I was super happy to have it. What’s the difficulty to have these features?? I don’t ask too much as a consumer that uses frequently the smartphone for almost everything.
Big problem with HTC is they don’t listen to their customers, they just ignore it or giving lame answers. Frankly, it really pissed me off their behavior towards people asking for it.
Maybe not important for you, but important for a lot of people. Me personally, I need micro SD and it’s a deciding factor in my choice of phone.
You can’t say a lot of people when you can only account for yourself. Just saying.
If you NEED a micro SD card, then by all means, the HTC One isn’t for you.
Well perusing the forums I can see that I’m not alone. It’s not up to you to decide it’s not important either =P
Well, I said that it wasn’t very important because most other manufacturers’ don’t have those features apart from Samsung (apart from the HTC One Chinese Edition that has a micro-SD card slot), and people are definitely buying iPhones and other smartphones from other manufacturers, so it mustn’t be very important.
To us tech-enthusiasts/Android fans, I can see why it might be important, but you have to realize we only account for a small margin of the overall market share.
1) HTC has historically not put out effective advertising for its phones; 2) HTC couldn’t sell the Flyer, let alone any other product; 3) I disagree with the lack of a popular following. I would state that HTC, more or less, sold out to Apple. HTC produced too many models to sell at one point. The customer service leaves much to be desired. The rooting community, however small, wasn’t receiving true support from HTC. Only a token in the form of HTCDev. When the decision to sell limited models and forego the external memory and removable battery came into play, it came with mixed results. The HTC One is the popular phone for now. However, with the iPhonish features, will it continue to remain a staple and truly represent Android? The question remains.
How did HTC sell out to Apple? By settling instead of spending millions that HTC doesn’t have to have a long drawn out battle against Apple? Has any OEM truly gave support to its modding community (HTCDev is enough for me to go off on)?
What iPhonish features does the HTC One have? Oh, you mean the “intents” patent? The feature that was in Android from 2.1 but Apple has patented and now HTC wants it back? These questions remain.
“…will it continue to remain a staple and truly represent Android?”
HTC One Google Edition. What more do you want?
I have no idea what you’re trying to get at man…
You don’t get mindshare from lacking the features that android fans care about. You only get the “OK I can live with it” guys while Samsung gets its fans to be fiercely in love with them for giving them everything they want
Once upon a time it was quite different…The xda in xda-developers stood for a series of HTC’s phones. Even if everyone moves away from HTC, that name will live on in one of the most popular android sites.
Superuser
They should axe whoever is making the marketing decisions of late, specifically the ones revolving around the lame TV spots & the HTC fill-in-the-blank schtick.
I seriously doubt if this campaign has, or ever will, reap any positive net gain for HTC.
Nice phones, major marketing & resourcefulness FAIL.
@rotep you do understand, that to the main consumer (most of them) could care less about a removable battery and SD slot. I’m not saying all of them, but a huge majority yes. But that isn’t going to necessarily get more sales. Its their marketing. I never see ANY freakin HTC commercials like I used to when the One X came out. And for the first time and only time. I saw the new HTC commercial for the One with RDJ and the tin foil boat or whatever. Its just sad, really sad. I just don’t understand why they aren’t marketing their phones. Get some new members onboard HTC and get to marketing the hell out of the ONE!!!! Show some features of the phone, show off Zoe, blinkfeed, that beautiful build of the device….sheesh! I really want HTC to climb out of the hole they dug themselves and make a good comeback. I’m really rooting for them
i used to think that way about the majority of consumers too… that they don’t care or know anything about the removable battery or sd card but that’s not true at all. today in class when one of my friend showed off his new HTC one to another classmate of ours (she’s a total clueless “soccer mom”) comparing to her gs3 she actually knew the stuff about the removable battery n sd card… she came out of it thinking that she’s not missing anything big bc her phone had the removable battery and sd slot. so ya, the majority prob won’t think about the removable battery and sd card right this sec when buying a new phone but it’s one of those things that in the back of their mind to be checked off on the list for a new phone when they compare the phone with the other phone next to it at the store… ppl aren’t that stupid, give them a little credit. phone geek or not we all want the most out of our phone so not be able to have a removable battery or sd card slot most ppl actually think about that but they’re just not obsess about it like we are.
That’s still a terrible example though. Yes I know that there are definitely casual users that are aware of this, particularly in the younger age group but your example isn’t really enough to draw any conclusions.
When my mom saw the Samsung ad that compared to the iphone 5, she told me “what? the iPhone doesn’t even have a removable battery?” She never had an iPhone but assumed that every phone would have such a basic feature.
No, I didn’t coach her because she has a Kindle Fire HD
If it wasn’t so important, why Samsung sold tons of their Galaxy phone lines like hot cakes??. The only reason I came back to them is because they let us choose instead of HTC and many OEMs impose us restrictions. HTC has been like RIM in many ways and it’s sad to say this way because they are both great companies but with stupid CEOs
Replace Samsung Galaxy with Apple iPhone.
No removable battery, no SD…sells like crazy.
We’re the minority. Most people don’t give a crap.
HTC’s CEO said earlier this year that he will resign if the HTC One does not make the sale. So is he a man of his words or he was just lying?
It looks like he will not survive for 2013 as CEO. Sad that before, HTC was always including these wanted options.They follow the BlackBerry way. Closed mind to the best.
I remember like 3-4 years back when HTC was the greatest android manufacturer and selling really when Samsung was doing awful(Samsung behold). and they said they were going to become the top seller in a year and I just laughed at them thinking HTC would stay at the top. now they’re in a pretty bad spot and kind of hurts to see it. I really want to see them make a sick ass comeback
HTC’s mistake was following Apples way of doing things. They turned their phone to unibody in the expense of not having SD card slot and removable battery just like the iPhone.
I used to be an HTC fanboi (G1 and G2) then I moved to SGS3 and now SGS4. When they started not having SDcard slot and removable battery I switched to Samsung.
Whoever managed/planned for the HTC in the last 2 years should be hanged. He/She led HTC to the its death.RIP
Agreed. It all started during the beats deal. I had a HTC mytouch 3g and am using a HTC sensation right now. I’ll probably go with the nexus 5 next, I miss the old htc
If the One had a 5″ screen …
Maybe that $10+ Million they paid Robert Downy Jr. for those terrible commercials should have been used elsewhere. Say to help pay their employees?
insanity
I agree, but most corporations don’t care about their low-mid level employees. They’ll probably just hire replacements overseas, where there are cheaper salaries. And give bonuses to upper management, and VIPs.
Granted HTC isn’t a US company, but that is the what US corps do.
Paying Robert Downy Jr. (whom I love) $10+ million dollars is the equivalent of them wasting $309 millions on Beats Audio before selling it back to Dr. Dre and company for a fraction of the purchase. They wasted valuable development time on the truly gimmicky device the EVO 3D.
This is HTC’s pattern, they constantly are focusing on the wrong area.
Even if they don’t actually need the employees?
looks like htc doesn’t want to sale phones and go out of business very
soon. who puts S4 Pro old specs on the latest phone and alot weaker than
the htc one which is 7 months old. they always make all the wrong
choices at HTC thats why they will never be on top again. htc is here to
change for the worst everyday. they are idiots at htc or on drugs who
puts 4mp camera and s4 pro on a new phone. when there is 20mp and 40 mp
cameras out there on mobile phones and when many phones already on the
market 2.2GHz and Snapdragon 800. this is why samsung will always eat
htc alive and always be #1, is not because samsung is better its because
htc hires idiots to choose the specs for there phones they always
choose the weakest cameras and weakest Processors.
Yea, the One’s camera is definitely a soft spot. After all the hype behind it (Phandroid is absolutely a guilty party here) I found a wonky camera that struggles in the simplest of situations. My photos always look like crap.
you’re putting a whole lot of stock in a rumor coming from someone who just wrong as hell about the LG Nexus 5
i hope the rumor from evleaks is not true because then the htc one max will suck no one will buy it
looks like htc doesn’t want to sale phones and go out of business very
soon. who puts S4 Pro old specs on the latest phone and alot weaker than
the htc one which is 7 months old. they always make all the wrong
choices at HTC thats why they will never be on top again. htc is here to
change for the worst everyday. they are idiots at htc or on drugs who
puts 4mp camera and s4 pro on a new phone. when there is 20mp and 40 mp
cameras out there on mobile phones and when many phones already on the
market 2.2GHz and Snapdragon 800. this is why samsung will always eat
htc alive and always be #1, is not because samsung is better its because
htc hires idiots to choose the specs for there phones they always
choose the weakest cameras and weakest Processors..
looks like htc doesn’t want to sale phones and go out of business very
soon. who puts S4 Pro old specs on the latest phone and alot weaker than
the htc one which is 7 months old. they always make all the wrong
choices at HTC thats why they will never be on top again. htc is here to
change for the worst everyday. they are idiots at htc or on drugs who
puts 4mp camera and s4 pro on a new phone. when there is 20mp and 40 mp
cameras out there on mobile phones and when many phones already on the
market 2.2GHz and Snapdragon 800. this is why samsung will always eat
htc alive and always be #1, is not because samsung is better its because
htc hires idiots to choose the specs for there phones they always
choose the weakest cameras and weakest Processors…..
The One is my last HTC. This company can not get there stuff together.
Same for me. I’m thinking of selling mine once the Nexus 5 comes out.
Everybody complaining about non removable battery and sd but forgetting another serious problem of the last HTC phones.
All the HTC phones in the last few years have a non removable battery with TERRIBLE duration.
And I am sure that a terrible battery life summed with the impossibility to change the battery itself generate word of mouth market between the people that no advertising in the world can fix.
I just think in portuguese and translate word by word in my mind this time, I am kind lazy in this morning. Hope it works.
no the HTC ONE Battery is great. about old htc phones i agree with you but now htc got the battery together
Here’s a idea, stop making new phone colors every week. Instead make all colors available at launch date and then just STOP making so many phones. The problem with HTC is they always have another better phone just around the corner and unlike apple they try to out do themselves multiple times a year. Ex Htc one, Htc one mini, htc one max, htc butterfly, now stager those with different colors that become available at different times. Release one, maybe 2 phones and stick with and support it.
Having spoken to a couple of friends who KEPT their jobs at HTC….
I was told their issue of “friendtocracy” was alive and well, that many who were let go brought value but didn’t have the “wink wink” friends there to protect them were asked to leave.
So, while it was a definitely a cost cutting measure, a lot of the problem people are still there. Sort of like if you got cancer and went in for surgury and the doctor decides to cut out half the tumor and half good tissue. The cancer is still there.
HTC is the Creative of several years back. Creative had superior devices but made too many and didnt properly market their product.
Good. I wish all these idiots following Apple (whose software and hardware philosophy, as a poweruser, I hate the guts of) with non-removable batteries, scrap metal bodies, no SD slots and so on, would crash and burn. Their One model even had a small display (relative to the body size) and the stupid 2 button configuration (not to talk about Sense but at least you can get rid of that).
To think that HTC was to Android, at a time, more or less what Samsung is today…
My first smartphone was the OG ….HTC evo 4g. That phone had marketing. That phone had sdcard. That phone had removable battery and 4g in 2010.
That was a must have game changer phone. Everyone with a brain had one.
HTC doesn’t sell to prepaid. Having purchased my LG Spirit 4g and lately my Samsung Galaxy S 4 at full price! Don’t tell me there’s no market for unsubsidised phone sales. HTC you had me at Evo 4G… But you’ve been all over the map unfocused…and even when you come out with a great phone…htce one…. Its not available. Pull your head out of your acc HTC.
htc product is available at virgin, boost and cricket. you can also (to my knowledge) buy any postpaid phone at full price and activate at any of the top national carriers.
Don’t know what HTC is doing..but they should find the new path.The user don’t want a proprietary software nor a phone with dedicated buttons. they want a good looking with good hardware and _stock google android_. Sense, good and enough. back in the days when i used my HTC desire, I was very impressed about the Sense workflow and integration but, then it got boring more and more. of course the can add some nice features, doesn’t matter. But keep your software for you! no facebook and such integration, no “super” Sense. Just let the software be a issue for google.
No removable battery or sdcard?
Means I don’t even consider the phone as a viable purchase. Immediately out of contention for my smartphone dollars…
And I pay full price. And if the phone isn’t offered on Metropcs… Can’t buy it. Samsung Galaxy S4 was offered at Metro. So I paid that 550 that 40 in taxes bought that spigen case 16 bucks and that sandisk ultra 64 GB sdcard 50 bucks and the number change activation fee 15 bucks.
4g LTE unlimited data-no throttling on gsm phone towers …MetroPcs is finally for grownups. 60 bucks a month everything unlimited… Just got to bite the bullet and pay full price for your phone. But its 2000 cheaper for better service unlimited data..,..
But the only HTC phone metro has of htc’s….the Wildfire from pre Evo days.
HTC is a joke company now. Clueless.
Also, when you consider more and more phones excluding removable batteries and sd card slots, those are separate industries they’re slowly killing off.
In a worst case scenario I wouldn’t mind HTC, being bought by a larger company there has been reports that other Taiwan companies like Lenovo or Asus could buy them or even be purchased by the Chinese Xaiomi and that would help get their foot in the door into north American. Since Barra is their he might have made friendships with Htc exec and convince them that this is what they need to do to survive. I’m hoping for an Htc comeback.
@rotep well look at apple for example. Non removable battery and no SD slot. Did that matter to the millions and millions that bought them?? No it didn’t. I know, Samsung surpassed Apple in sales, but are you gonna tell me it was because of a removable battery and SD slot? Ha hopefully not because that really hardly had anything to do with it. They marketed the hell out of their phones all over the place, showing off all the features it has. I don’t think I’ve seen a Samsung commercial that said anything about a removable battery and SD slot. @tottyrice obviously people notice that they have a removable battery and SD slot when they purchase the phone. And sure, its nice to swap out the battery for another one if needed for a bigger one. To each his own when it comes to that….its just getting super annoying always reading about people complaining about removable batteries and SD slots. But funny how when it comes to talking about a nexus device, no one gives a crap if it does or doesn’t, they just want it lol.
HTC isn’t Apple. Apple is going for a very particular consumer who wants an Apple only ecosystem, where everything is carefully controlled. HTC can’t offer that carefully controlled ecosystem, no matter how nice and shiny it looks. Samsung users care about features and flexibility. HTC needs to go after those users by being even more practical and functional. This is what Moto X is doing in its commercials.
I had the Droid Incredible and it was a good phone for its time. I think where HTC lost people like me was the Thunderbolt. Absolute piece of junk. Heard the EVO was just as bad. You can’t put out a product like that and barely support it, then expect people to come back later. I don’t care how good the ONE or ONE MAX is. When you burn people they won’t come back.
Nope. The OG Evo was fantastic. Take it from a past user.
Agreed, that was my first Android phone and I loved it.
would be cool if Google bought HTC also
HELL YES
Indeed but than Samsung might feel betrayed since Google cant use the whole patent excuse because HTC doesnt have as much as moto. Google cant buy another OEM because the other OEMS will feel its playing favorites
shame …htc one is the best phone out
htc fail detected.
“its not all bad news” that is the most ignorant and insensitive statement i have ever heard on Phandroid. that means more Americans out of work…that is all the bad news!!! wow Chris….
Hurrying
Toward
Chapter 11
the problem is htc doesn’t listen to what people want. who wants a 4mp camera on a phone? who? we need 16mp and up or don’t make phones. we need fast Processors.
Yeah I agree. i think specs are everything. That’s why I bought my Snapdragon 800 phone with a 50mp camera. It was only $200 and I don’t care if it was from an OEM called Vivitar.
I have the HTC One, and still I hve 20GB in the storage empty. The people wants a phone to replace their TV’s and the cable company all together, and the wirless company MUST drop their plan price to be free with unlimited data text and talk and SUPPER HIGH SPEED DATA. People get your acts together please.
I have the One and I’m very disappointed in the camera.
I have had four different HTC phones in a row… currently with the One and mostly love it (though my Evo LTE seemed much lighter, thinner and larger screen) .. anyway, what’s killing HTC is their marketing. It sucks. Apple does it right. Samsung is now doing it right, following Apple’s strategy. If you want the average person to buy your phone, you need to beat the other guy’s marketing.
samsung is not doing it right. its a joke.
Their profits and sales say otherwise.
I showed my support for way I consider the best looking phone made by buying the One yesterday. As we all know this phone has the same basic specs as the S4 and looks and feels ten times nicer so why does Samsung sell millions? Several reasons one of which is the camera, personally for my usage the camera is just fine but people see 4 megapixel and it doesn’t matter if they are ultra or whatever it still scared them away. Secondly it’s just too hard to compete against the Samsung marketing machine, Sony and LG will agree with HTC on that one. Lastly is Samsung got a lot of brand loyalty with the first galaxies and people just kept upgrading to the next one much like iPhone owners do. The S4 does no one thing perfectly but it does many things well. HTC will survive, they will hopefully learn a lessonand throw a twenty megapixel camera in their 2014 flagship device and keep the same great look and build quality.LG, Sony, Htc and many newcomers are pushing the envelope with designs and trying to differentiate their products. I think people will pass on Samsung’s next flagship out of boredom with the tired design.
Samsung has name recognition
First thing an S4 owner has to do is go buy an SD card because their phone is running out of space as soon as they install a few apps. Secondly they need to buy a second battery because it won’t make it through one work day on a single charge regardless of how is used. Lastly the S4 owner needs to root their phone and remove all the bloat that is slowing it down and taking up valuable internal space but mainly to stop all the lag. Most will run a custom rom to speed up the galaxy and get that pure Google experience which does away with every gimmick on the phone. I love the One I just got to replace the S4 but to be honest I never intended on keeping it, I will pay the reboxing fee at T-Mobile the day the LG G2 comes in and then wait to see what next year brings to the table.
Nope, if you had a phone before, you will reuse your SD Card not buy another one. People who tend to buy phone with SD card slot used to have a phone with SD card slot with thousands of pictures, music and some videos already dumped in there. Sorry you are wrong. Having an SD Card slot is never a negative. ANd BTW, SD CARDS are cheap!
My S4 still gives me around 35% juice before I go to bed and I am a phone addict. I don’t know where you are getting your info. The S4 has a bigger battery and the Super AMOLED is more efficient than regular LCD.
Bloatware is normal for every phone, I tell you, even Nexus line gives you some pre-installed Google junks. I have never seen a virgin Android Phone that only contains the pure OS and no more. I root my phone because I want a free tether and I choose ROMS that are Touch Wiz based. Yup, I put back the same Touch Wiz. So saying that TW is ugly is like telling the other man his wife is ugly. Everybody sees things differently, be objective.
In the end, the S4 is more future proof because it has slightly better clocked CPU, DDR3 RAM instead of DDR2 for the HTC, Grorilla Glass 3 instead of GG2 for HTC, 13MP vs 4, ability for wireless charging, and best of all, you can keep a phone forever if you have the ability to replace the battery.
Who’s gonna buy a 2 year old phone knowing the battery has never been replaced and will never be replaced.
If you buy the S4 with 32gb of int storage you will not have issues with running out of space. I have a 64gb sd-card that I have allot of music on and 25 classic movies all in HD that I can watch, love it. Also I have the iPhone 5 and the battery does not last me the entire day, hardly, I’m charging it a minimum of twice a day. I enjoy both OS but to be honest the Android phones are allot of fun, love hacking and flashing roms and sometimes I just enjoy using it stock. I also enjoy the iphone 5, sold mine to update to the 5S. Both OS are great, I will always have both.
HTC started failing when they started to become like Apple. Android users want openness and choice!!
HTC marketing is just not there. Take a cue from Moto and Samsung and show us what your phones can do.
tinyurl.com/l3cselt
v
Murica!
my parents in-law recently purchased a year 2012 Hyundai Sonata Sedan only from working off a macbook air. Continue ►►►►►► ＰＯＲＴ６０．ＣＯＭ
So apparently the HTC One didn’t make enough of a difference for HTC,…kinda sad, plenty capable phone (though I have the S4). I wonder what will become of HTC in 2014. . .
The thing that has plagued HTC over the years has been any and all of their marketing divisions (whether it’s internal or outside companies hired to do the job). If any part of the company needed to be overhauled, it’s their marketing team.