HTC to Cut Jobs and Product Lineup as Shares Fall

Things haven’t been going smoothly for HTC and the company has been under a lot of pressure to plug its losses and turn a profit, unfortunately it wasn’t able to do that by the end of Q2 2015. It’s an indication that HTC’s flagship One M9 smartphone did not gain traction.

The Taiwanese smartphone maker, as part of its new strategy, will focus on high-end devices to better compete with Apple and Samsung Electronics. 07 billion in the same period of 2014.

These losses come when HTC is already in the throes of upheaval: the company recently replaced its CEO and lost its design chief, along with his replacement.

HTC also plans on capitalizing on market segments like virtual reality where it claims to have a “first move advantage”, but considering the fact that the VR market hasn’t completely evolved yet it’s unlikely to substantially prop up HTC’s numbers. The company, as expected, posted weak financial results for the second quarter and warned of a loss ahead on the third quarter. The company plans on cutting jobs, as well as downgrading the number of smartphone models it manufactures.

“With these measures, we expect a sequential increase in revenue in the fourth quarter of this year”, he said, stressing that HTC aims to break even in the smartphone business in the near future. He also warned that the job cuts “will be significant”, adding that they’ll extend into the first quarter of next year.

Chang said HTC was banking on selling high-end models in emerging smartphone markets such as India, where he said the company has a 20 percent market share of phones priced between $250-$400. However, analysts believe this won’t end HTC’s struggle to keep up with the likes of Samsung and Apple.

The company’s shares declined by 1.69 percent to NT$70 in Taipei trading yesterday.