HTC looks to be in even more trouble than before as figures point to an incredibly lean April, with disappointing HTC One M9 sales to blame.
The Taiwanese company appeared to be pulling through a lengthy rough patch with decent (if not stellar) sales of the HTC One M8 last year.
However, the release and subsequent underperformance of the HTC One M9 in April appears to have set the company back once again.
According to the Taipei Times, HTC’s revenue declined nearly 40 percent to just to NT$13.54 billion in April compared to NT$22.07 billion this time last year. Even more worryingly, its revenue was lower in April than it was in March.
Just to reiterate that last point – HTC made more money in a month where its latest phone had been on the market for almost a year than it did during a month in which it follow-up flagship was first released.
Sure enough, poor demand for the HTC One M9 is being blamed for the drop by analysts. One analyst from Yuanta Securities speculated that “HTC might have underestimated the Qualcomm Inc S810 processor’s thermal issue, and this has resulted in poor reviews and concern from carriers.”
Far more important, we’d say, has been the relative strength of the Samsung Galaxy S6 and Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge, which were released around the same time as the One M9.
Read More: Samsung Galaxy S6 vs HTC One M9
This year is the first in a while in which Samsung’s new flagship has won greater critical praise than its rival’s to go along with its superior marketing budget, greater production capabilities, and higher popularity with general consumers.
For once, a new Samsung phone is being praised for its design as well as its power and feature list. This is in stark contrast to the HTC One M9, which has been widely criticised for hardly moving forward from the HTC One M8 design.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
