HTC is trimming 15% of its workforce due to below-par sales

Motorola’s contribution to Lenovo’s smartphone shipments came in at 5.9 million units in the second quarter, which was a 31 percent year-over-year decline. In its best moment, more than one in 10 of all smartphones sold worldwide were HTC.

Besides woes in the computer market, company executives noted a “slowing growth and increasing competition – especially in China – in smartphones”.

HTC has been in trouble for quite some time now and this is what is forcing it to lower down its operating expenses in order to survive in the market with the left over image that they have established till date.

Its market share is less than 2 percent against double digits previously.

Figures from IDC show HTC accounted for 1.5 per cent of the global smartphone market in Q1, although this was up marginally from the same quarter in Q1 2014.

As smartphones entered their heyday, HTC moved swiftly to carve out its own brand and in 2011 it was the darling of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona with a daring array of compellingly attractive devices.

“HTC is an inspirational company driven by innovative people”, said HTC chairwoman and CEO Cher Wang, who made a return to the company she co-founded in March 2015.

The plan involves a streamlining of operations to reduce operating expenditure by 35 percent, the company said. “This strategic realignment of our business will ensure that each product group has the right focus, the right resources and the right expertise”, read Wang’s business jargon-laden prepared statement justifying the layoffs.

HTC also said that it continues to invest in new product areas such as virtual reality, where it is working with over a thousand developers on content ahead of the launch of HTC Vive at the end of the year.