CFO of HTC Winston Yung admitted the company “dropped the ball” in 2011 and its high-end devices are not selling as well as expected. This is due mostly to HTC’s hardware being substantially thicker than the competition and often having poor battery life.
“While short term performance may not meet the results as expected, we have gained further experience and advancement in the areas of brand management and product innovation,” CEO Peter Chou stated in a press release. “These fundamental strengths and the groundwork we have laid will take us into 2012 with a renewed focus and determination.”
His message seems to echo the same one given by the company’s CFO: HTC shit the bed.
The handset manufacturer posted its first profit decline in two years this morning and expects revenue to drop even further during first quarter. Revenue for the fourth quarter dropped 2.5 percent from Q4 2010 and by over 25 percent from Q3 2011 to $3.44 billion.
HTC was arguably the top Android smartphone vendor in 2010, pumping out the first 4G Android phone along with many other successful devices with great combinations of solid hardware and software. But in 2011, the spotlight that once engulfed HTC was very dim at best. 2011 was Samsung’s year to shine: it had much thinner Android hardware and did an overall better job than anyone at stealing a bit of Apple’s thunder, albeit not a whole lot. Samsung also had a stronger focus on Android handsets, while HTC flip-flopped between Android and Windows Phone in 2011.