Hasta La Gadget!

Its no secret that HTC hasn’t had a good year, despite the fact that it released smartphones such as the HTC One, which received rave reviews from critics as well as customers around the world. The company actually posted its first ever quarterly loss in its entire history and just this month HTC has registered its 25th consecutive month of declining year on year sales. In a bid to make things better in the coming year, the company has appointed a new global head of sales who will obviously be tasked with improving the sale of HTC’s devices.

HTC has promoted from within the company, its current CFO Chialin Chang is now the new global head of sales. As per the statement released by the company, Chang looks to consolidate operations and will draw from his previous experience of working in sales. The CFO post will remain with Chang as well until HTC determines that “a transition of responsibilities makes sense.” The company’s revenues have dipped significantly and a number of its top executives left earlier this year, it certainly needs to step up its game if HTC wants to mount a challenge against its rivals, some of who have been better off this year, in the global smartphone market.

HTC Appoints New Global Head Of Sales After Bleeding Customers And Revenue original content from Ubergizmo.

Earlier this month Justice Arnold of the England and Wales High Court ordered an injunction against HTC, found to have violated Nokia’s “modular structure for a transmitter and a mobile station” patent. This resulted in a ban for the HTC One Mini which went in effect on December 6th. When the order was announced, HTC said that it would file an urgent application for appeal. The appeal has turned out in its favor, the ban on HTC One Mini in the UK has been relaxed, meaning that the company can continue to import the device in the UK despite Nokia’s win.

It was already feared that the HTC One Mini ban might lead to other members of the One family being banned, something which the company would not want to happen. HTC says that it has full intention of “aggressively” appealing the patent validity decision, but right now it is “delighted” that the Court of Appeals has granted a stay, thus relaxing the ban. It also says that it will continue working with chip suppliers on alternative solutions so as to ensure that there are minimal disruptions to its business in the future. Nokia has not commented on the Court of Appeals’ decision as yet.

HTC One Mini UK Ban Relaxed Despite Nokia’s Win original content from Ubergizmo.

Both Nokia and HTC are embroiled in a legal tussle with one another, where a recent victory from Nokia led to an injunction against HTC products. While that is interesting in its own right, it seems that the case might have let slip HTC’s plans for their 2014 flagship device, the HTC M8, which we have been hearing a lot about as of late. During the ruling made by the judge in the case, it was mentioned that Nokia had provided evidence that HTC was planning on launching the M8 in Q1 of 2014, and could be as early as February 2014 which is coincidentally the same time as when the HTC One was first announced.

According to Judge Richard Arnold who wrote in his decision, “HTC is close to launching the successor flagship model to the HTC One. HTC has not revealed the launch date […] Nokia has adduced evidence which suggests that the launch date is in the first quarter of 2014 and possibly as early as February 2014. HTC has not contradicted this.” The judge does not actually name the device as the M8, but based on the leaked specs, chances are he is talking about the same device. In any case it does not come as a surprise that HTC has a new flagship device in the works, but we guess this is as close to an official confirmation that we can get for now.

UK Judge Might Have Revealed The HTC M8′s Launch Date original content from Ubergizmo.

HTC hasn’t had a great year. The company finds itself in a precarious financial situation because the products it was counted on to succeed didn’t end up generating enough revenue. 2013 actually turned out to be the year in which HTC had its first quarterly loss in its entire history. Even though its revenues for the month of November 2013 met market expectations, up 3.2 percent sequentially, the US$522 million revenues HTC generated this month actually represent a 27.1 percent year-over year decrease.

The company generated roughly $6.5 billion in revenue during the first 11 months of this year, which amounts to a 28.6 percent decrease when compared to last year. The company has outlined its fourth quarter, it expects to ship 5.2 million smartphones and a 16.2 percent sequential drop in revenues. HTC says that its falling market share in U.S. and Europe is to blame for the revenue loss, apart from the fact that it failed to launch any major products apart from the HTC One Max in this particular quarter. HTC needs to seriously up its game if it looks to mount a strong challenge against rivals next year. The company’s co-founder and chairwoman Cher Wang has already said that marketing is one of the biggest challenges HTC faces. HTC would also want to iron out the patent litigation that led to a ban on HTC One Mini sales in the UK, with a similar ban looming for the HTC One, the company would want its flagship smartphone to keep selling in one of Europe’s most lucrative markets.

HTC’s November Revenues Fall 27.1 Percent Year-Over-Year original content from Ubergizmo.

HTC is a company that is clearly reeling from a lack of innovation, or at least due to the fact that their rivals in the smartphone arena have pulled far ahead of them. In fact, the latest blow would be the fact that Nokia has just picked up a victory in a patent lawsuit against HTC, where Justice Arnold of the England and Wales High Court has placed an order for an injunction against HTC of Taiwan, which happens to be ruled to have violated Nokia’s EP0998024 patent on “modular structure for a transmitter and a mobile station”.

This will add more pressure to HTC for sure, especially after the company has not been in the pink of health, financially speaking. Nokia happens to be the owner of one of the biggest patent portfolios where the mobile space is concerned, and this latest injunction against HTC means that Nokia has the option to file a ban on HTC One sales over in the UK. In fact, the HTC One mini has already been banned from being sold in the UK from December 6th onward, so hopefully HTC will be able to pull together a case in their appeal which will have the relevant amount of “arguing firepower” to overturn the sales ban.

HTC One Mini To Get UK Ban, HTC One Ban Also Possible original content from Ubergizmo.