HTC One Delayed After Suppliers Lose Faith
To compete in the fierce smartphone market, you have to have an excellent handset as well as strong partners all along the supply chain. It sure looks like the HTC One will be a terrific phone, but it looks like there are big problems with HTC’s suppliers.
Two premiere features of the HTC One are its UltraPixel camera (which boasts smart flash and ImageChip 2 technology) and a sexy silver aluminum unibody, but there’s a report that HTC is having trouble securing those components. Some suppliers don’t feel as though HTC is a “tier one” customer any longer. This is very bad news for HTC, as the One is now going to be delayed--at best.
HTC indeed had a historically bad year in 2012, rapidly losing ground to the likes of Samsung, but its overall product portfolio seems solid and it would seem as though the company could reasonably turn things around, particularly if it can make a splash with a hot new flagship phone like the HTC One.
The One must succeed, and HTC CEO Peter Chou knows it; he reportedly told other HTC executives that if the HTC One flops, he’ll step down. Those are high stakes.
After tumbling down the mobile mountain last year, HTC is discovering how difficult the climb back up can be.
Two premiere features of the HTC One are its UltraPixel camera (which boasts smart flash and ImageChip 2 technology) and a sexy silver aluminum unibody, but there’s a report that HTC is having trouble securing those components. Some suppliers don’t feel as though HTC is a “tier one” customer any longer. This is very bad news for HTC, as the One is now going to be delayed--at best.
HTC indeed had a historically bad year in 2012, rapidly losing ground to the likes of Samsung, but its overall product portfolio seems solid and it would seem as though the company could reasonably turn things around, particularly if it can make a splash with a hot new flagship phone like the HTC One.
The One must succeed, and HTC CEO Peter Chou knows it; he reportedly told other HTC executives that if the HTC One flops, he’ll step down. Those are high stakes.
After tumbling down the mobile mountain last year, HTC is discovering how difficult the climb back up can be.
