Jun 04
Jun 04
HTC Loses Another Senior Exec As COO Steps Down – But May’s Phone Sales Are One Bright Spot Amid The Gloom
Posted in: Today's Chili
Troubled Taiwanese mobile maker HTC, which has seen its profits plummet as it struggles to compete in an Android mobile space dominated by its Galaxy-spewing rival Samsung, is losing (yet) another senior executive. Bloomberg reports that Chief Operating Officer Matthew Costello will step down after less than three years at the company. Costello joined HTC in December 2010, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Bloomberg reports that Fred Liu, currently HTC’s president of engineering and operations, will “take on Costello’s responsibilities in an expanded role covering operations, quality, sales operations and services”. The details were in an email to employees obtained by the news agency, which also notes that despite stepping down as COO Costello will stay on as an executive adviser after moving to Europe. We’ve reached out to HTC for comment and will update this story with any response.
Update: HTC has now sent the following statement, made by CEO Peter Chou: “To achieve success, we’ve had to change when it was right for the business. Recently was one of those times. We took control of our business, narrowed our focus, and launched our new HTC One. Actions to streamline our business resulted in some reorganization and executive departures, but initial sales of the One have validated our approach. Response for our flagship device has been strong and demand has exceeded our expectations. We are confident that the business steps we have taken and continue to take are the right ones to lead to a strong resurgence of the HTC brand.”
Costello’s departure is the latest in a string of senior exec loses at HTC, including its Senior Vice President of Global Marketing Greg Fisher, Chief Product Office Kouji Kodera, Global Communications VP Jason Gordon, Global Retail Marketing Manager Rebecca Rowland, digital marketing chief John Starkweather and Eric Lin, manager of product strategy — all within the past three months. Last November the company also announced the appointment of a new Chief Marketing Officer, Benjamin Ho, to replace John Wang from January, with the aim of turning the marketing noise up on HTC’s innovations.
The company’s prior ‘quietly brilliant’ marketing messaging has fizzled against the onslaught of Samsung’s well-oiled and funded marketing machinery — which is pretty much the opposite of quiet. So it barely seemed to matter that HTC made a cracking Android flagship in the HTC One, arguably the best Android flagship on the market, because selling smartphones has become a game of who can shout the loudest for the longest. A game of brash tones, if you will.
But there’s one bright spot amid all this gloom for HTC. The company has just posted monthly revenues for May showing a 48.03% surge in sales — its best uplift all year (it has, however, been a terrible year for HTC). It’s still 3.35% down year-on-year but considering April’s revenues were down 36.87% that’s a substantial improvement. May’s revenues were NT$29 billion ($970 million).
Whether HTC can claw back from the brink with one star phone in its portfolio is, however, debatable. Its Facebook Home gamble, with the HTC First, looks to have backfired, as that device has been withdrawn pre-sale in Europe and its position in the U.S. looks perilous. Meanwhile Samsung keeps on firing forth iterations of its Galaxy flagships aimed at saturating the market with differed sized and priced versions of its hardware, leaving even less wiggle room for HTC.
Still, another quietly positive note for HTC is that Google looks to be stepping in to try to help out a little, by offering a Google Edition of the HTC One for sale on its Play Store. After all, an Android ecosystem dominated by Samsung is not without problems for Mountain View — for Android ecosystem health/biodiversity reasons — but also because of the risk that Samsung starts to hold too many of its cards. Whatever Google’s motives, HTC could certainly do with a few friends in high places right now.
Jun 04
HTC has lost another high-level exec, this time the company’s Chief Operating Office Matthew Costello, stepping back to work as an “executive advisor” while HTC reshuffles to form a new quality assurance team, among others. The mix-up, confirmed in an internal email to HTC employees obtained by Bloomberg, marks another potentially painful top-tier abandonment after several leavers back in May.
According to the email – the key contents of which HTC apparently confirmed to Bloomberg – Costello’s tasks will be taken over by Fred Liu, currently president of engineering and operations. In fact, Liu’s role at HTC will be expanded considerably, the note to staff suggested, now covering operations, quality, sales operations, and services.
Meanwhile, HTC’s Georges Boulloy will now lead a new quality assurance division that will focus on product reliability, the message said. A further team will be tasked with “product lifecycle matters” which is, presumably, a reference at least in part to ensuring timely Android OS updates.
Costello will not split from HTC altogether, with his new role as an advisor kicking off when he moves from Taiwan to Europe.
However, the COO is not the only loss HTC has suffered lately. In May, the company saw its Chief Product Officer and VP of Global Communications leave, shortly followed by the CEO of HTC Asia. The month before, HTC’s Global Retail Marketing Manager, its Product Manager, and its Worldwide Director of Digital Marketing all left for new roles elsewhere.
Nonetheless, things at HTC aren’t all bad. The company announced its unaudited sales for May 2013 today, which reached 29bn New Taiwanese Dollars ($970m); that’s a roughly 50-percent increase over revenues for April. The increasing availability of the HTC One is believed to be at the root of the growing sales.
HTC shuffles as COO jumps: Quality teams formed as revenues climb is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Jun 03
The Daily Roundup for 06.03.2013
Posted in: Today's Chili
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours — all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
Jun 03
Since it arrived last year, the Galaxy S III
Jun 03
Jun 03
This morning the folks at Verizon made the HTC One official for their 4G LTE network in the United States, ending weeks of rumors and tips aimed at the point. This device will work with the same specifications as it had on other carriers in the United States and internationally, carrying the HTC One hero name as it does so. At the moment, Verizon has only specified that the HTC One will be coming later this summer.
This announcement by version has been made in an unceremoniously small manner. While earlier this year it’d been made clear that Verizon’s release of the HTC One would be “a big deal”, here it would appear that it’s been given the silent move treatment. Regardless, this version of the HTC One will be delivered with essentially the same treatment as it’s been given with AT&T, here ushered in with Verizon apps and microSIM connectivity to Verizon’s network.
The Verizon HTC One saw Bluetooth certification this morning as well, all but promising it for the carrier in the process. Now we’ve only to see when the HTC One launches with the largest mobile network in the USA and if it’ll beat the release of the HTC One Google Edition revealed at the end of last month. The HTC One with “Nexus user experience” will be appearing on the 22nd of June.
An important point of distinction with this release is the fact that this machine will be called the HTC One, not any iteration of Verizon’s “DROID” line. This machine will not replace the DROID DNA with Verizon, nor will it knock out any other HTC device currently in Verizon’s lineup (not directly, anyway). This is a big marker in the history of HTC with Verizon as their inclusion in the DROID line has, up until today, been a bit of a staple.
Stay tuned as the HTC One gets detailed in full from Verizon as they push past the initial Twitter announcement. This device will quite likely be launched in a 32GB iteration in silver, though a red version of the device is not yet out of the question.
Verizon HTC One official: coming “later this summer” is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Jun 03
Though such an appearance of a smartphone in Bluetooth certification listings would be a non-news situation, the code corresponding to the HTC One with Verizon-friendly innards has kicked up the proverbial fan dust this morning. What’s happening here is that a device with the code HTC6500LVW has appeared seeking Bluetooth certification for the USA, this code corresponding to the HTC M7 working with Verizon’s collection of wireless data radio bands. This effectively means there’s another HTC One on the way, the one Verizon fans have been waiting for. UPDATE: The Verizon HTC One is now official.
While the Verizon-friendly HTC One works with the code HTC6500LVW, the DROID DNA works with the code HTC6435LVW. The DROID DNA appeared in Bluetooth certification listings just like this one not too far ahead of its initial Verizon announcement. Now, according to Phone Arena, the HTC One (with the code HTC6500LVW) has appeared in Verizon’s inventory system as well, just this morning.
The description of this device in Verizon’s system has been reported to be simply HTC M7 -perhaps to hide it from the slightly less fanatical eyes that would see it – as well as HTC6500LVW-DU. The DU generally stands for Demo Unit in carrier stock systems – this meaning the device will, of course, be in stores as well.
Though the time between Verizon’s stock systems being updated with a device and the actual launch of said device do not always collide in a matter of weeks, we’ve got reason to believe that it’ll be sooner than later that the HTC One will finally arrive in stores. With the DROID DNA giving way in the news to word of a larger HTC “phablet” device and the HTC One’s arrival on Verizon knocking out its own fair share of forum and social networking hubbub, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the HTC One before the month is out.
Have a peek at our original HTC One review and check the HTC One AT&T review as well to see how the carrier adds a bit of app flare to the situation to see how Verizon may handle this release. With the Google Edition of the HTC One well on its way as well, it’ll be interesting to see how Verizon will market this device, especially since it’s been available through other channels now for several months.
Thanks for the tip, Vlad!
VIA: G for Games
SOURCE: Bluetooth SIG
Verizon HTC One enters Bluetooth certification process is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Jun 02
Jun 02
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