HTC CEO Peter Chou has put his job on the line, and promised to step down if sales of the HTC One are not successful. This is according to company insiders, who state that Chou made this risky commitment late last year in a closed-door meeting with other HTC senior executives.
This risky promise also comes in the wake of news that HTC has been downgraded among its suppliers; in other words, the company’s troubles have caused its own suppliers to give it a second look and reduce its importance in comparison to, let’s say, Samsung. Apparently, this downgrade among its suppliers is the ultimate cause of that UltraPixel shortage we told you about earlier this month.
In any case, at least Peter Chou isn’t acting like other CEOs, sitting back and accepting huge paychecks while the company crumbles around him. Since he made this promise, he’s got more motivation than ever to make sure the One succeeds. Unfortunately, now that developers, suppliers, and even many regular consumers have turned sour about HTC, Chou has certainly got a big uphill battle ahead of him.
This sounds sad and very depressing. I heard somewhere that the HTC One’s camera didn’t perform very well, I don’t know how this phone is going to keep up with the competition.
Where did you hear/read that?
The reviews I’ve read seem to really like the fact that it can take pictures in the darker better than any phone cam around.
I’m not sure where I read that from. I don’t want to believe it. I really want the HTC One to be successful. I did read the reviews that said that the camera was great! I want to be able to say to people that my 4.3 megapixel camera takes better pictures than your 13 megapixel camera! Lol.
It’s not about the size of the megapixels, but the quality of the sensor packed within it.
I think they do an amazing job.. and I think the Sense UI is best in bred having tried UI’s on Samsung, Nexus, Motorola and HTC devices.
I’m sure that the EVO at Sprint is part of the problem; they can’t claim their basic top of the shelf phone is top of the shelf when the EVO at Sprint is a few notches better.
I would guess that is also why we never know when we are getting an update, upgrade, Etc.
I’ll believe it when my s@#t turn purple and smells like orange sherbert. Just another empty/half promise from Chou.
Super Troopers baby!
Did he define the measure of “success? ”
Sorry to see you go Mr. Chou. You built the best devices durring the WinMo years, before iPhone.
Maybe you should of been listening instead of just being “quiet”
Peace
That’s actually what I’m wondering, too! When it comes down to it, is success just not losing any money on the phone, or is it actually turning the company around? I’m betting he was vague on purpose…
I have to agree with you guys. On the surface, it sounds like a very bold statement designed to motivate the company and prove to the world that he’s trying his best. However, the fact that he didn’t define “success” means he’s safe as long as it isn’t a complete and total flop. He just needs to spin it correctly.
This seems to be an interesting business decision, but hopefully it inspires the company and motivates Chou to make the HTC One a success. Of course, if he was doing anything but trying to make the HTC One and HTC successful, he hasn’t been a very good CEO. Back when the OG EVO came out and the Sensation was released (not to mention the Nexus One), I was sure that HTC would become the largest Android manufacturer. Back then, you couldn’t have convinced me that Samsung’s Galaxy line would take over. I’m not sure what happened, but hopefully even this can help HTC get it back together.
I’ll tell you what happened. Samsung copied Apples marketing techniques, HTC didn’t advertise their product well enough, and you can’t develop and update 20 different devices within a reasonable amount of time. The original One line was supposed to unify their build direction, but you see how that worked.
I for one have defended HTC, and am sending this very message from my 3D (wild for the night ROM though
) and will continue to use them, so long as they are a company. To me , HTC builds a device that uses Samsung specs with Motos build quality.
There was an argument on Droid Life about the aluminum body not being a big deal. Well, it kinda is. Those frames are more expensive than that poly mold body that Sammy uses, which cuts into profits when you’re addressing millions of units. That type of company, when you add common sense, can be great. I’m waiting to see HTC be that company once more, and set the standard for the mobile platform.
The person who made the idiotic decision to omit external storage and a replaceable battery in the One should be the “one” to step down.
Hahahaha I agree!!!!
Removable Battery or SD is not a deal breaker for everyone. I for one could care less if it had a removable battery, as I wouldn’t switch it out anyway. I have a GNex, still use the originial battery… It last me most of the day with moderate use. I’m good with that. The One has a slightly bigger battery which I know would last me most if not all day. My Gnex has 32 gb internal, Im probably a third of it. So a base 32gb One would be great for me too.
What I hear the most is what a some people don’t like which is fine… don’t buy it as your opinion, much like mine, probably won’t matter. If you don’t like the phone offered, there are plenty for you to choose from.
I think I’m just tired of the same arguement of what is killing this phone when in all honesty its not much different than the S4. It is a good phone by a good company, that has messed up with the other important part of business… marketing. Has HTC dropped the ball in some way… yes, but I’d rather have them not fail so I have choices… good or bad.
Not an attack on you just a generalized rant.
Yeah right you cant say that on Sprints network with its horrible download speeds. You need to carry all your data with you cause pulling it down through Sprints network is never going to happen
If an EVO variant with expandable storage and camera button doens ts how up I think I’ll gladly wait for the next nexus and go prepaid.
Damn straight!! Chou needs to chill with the grandstanding, and empty words…then, read and re-read this comment…then, DO BETTER!! Stop taking the stuff we want away…I’ve never read a comment from any consumer…on any site, claiming to prefer having NO sd-card slot and a non-removable battery!!
They can give me one and I’ll tell everyone how great it is
This being a site dedicated to the EVO line I understand why everyone wants an SD card slot. The one being a device that is going to be the same across all carriers means that an SD slot is irrelevant to most purchasers. Only sprint has a terrible data network at this point as they build out LTE so most people can rely on the “cloud” without concern. As far as a non-removable battery just look at the success of the iPhone. People prefer form over function and removable batteries do not fit in to that equation for the most part. If you want SD and removable battery go samsung otherwise be excited that HTC is still around as an option. I personally switched from my evo lte to a gnex for the dev support. My LTE was far better looking but the gnex is more functional.
As an early adopter, and trend setter (or atleast we were, getting older now) If I am not interested in a device, or get it and don’t praise it, the followers won’t hear “glowing” reports.
While I agree, 32G internal might be enough, the reality is 32G is few and far between. If it was standard, I might not have a problem. However, I find SD cards easier for sharing files.
Non removeable batter is not a problem for me, but why does it need to be sealed? I do not need a sim device. I need a feature packed and overflowing device to get my juices up.
I’ll Vote with my wallet.
Peace
At one point I felt like an early adopter always on the bleeding edge (never felt cool enough to be a trendsetter though) but lately I’ve just been looking for devices that I can customize but still rely upon. With HTC’s policy of locking down the important partitions thus requiring various s-off methods I feel they have lost a lot of dev support. Aesthetically they have the best looking phones around and I wish other manufacturers were as passionate about design as they were. I think they (HTC) have decided to appeal the the general smart device population and as such are dropping a lot of the features that our niche feel are important. Even Samsung is beginning to be less developer friendly with their Exynos chips but that is a discussion for another place. In the end all we CAN do is vote with our wallet. While I most likely will not be purchasing a One device I am glad to still see HTC around doing their thing and I hope that continues. One can deal with black plastic slabs for only so long.
he might as well step down right now. S4 has htc one beat specs wise already
I had it set in my mind to finally switch to Samsung with the S4.. When it was announced.. I wasn’t super impressed by it for some reason. Now HTC is offering $100 for an old phone I have sitting around. The One also looks sooo much better and isn’t plastic. I also still cannot stand AMOLED… it just bothers me. My EVO LTE screen looks so amazing. I don’t think I can switch to it. HTC customer service is also outstanding. When I got my EVO LTE.. it had signal issues. No questions asked.. they told me to send it in and they will find a resolution for me. They ended up giving me a brand new phone. The customer rep was also very nice and knew what they were talking about. I don’t care about removable battery. Never have. No SD card kind of bothered me a bit. However 32 GB is plenty.. as I have a 32 GB card now. I don’t like moving apps to memory card all the time either. Who knows… maybe transfer rate will be faster as it seems apps that are on my SD card lag when Sense decides to do its reloading thing
I didn’t like how long it took for updates. That was my only real beef. Maybe that will change having just one device. Because of all this, I am still kind of torn. Part of me wants to move to the S4. Part of me wants to stay because I know I’m getting a better quality device. The S4 does have higher specs.. which really sucks. But probably wont be noticeable. The 4 MP camera just sounds really bad on the One.. But I know that means nothing and its just my head saying that. I don’t know.. is anyone else having the same indecision as I am? The time is getting close.. and I will need to decide soon.
Even if the HTC One is a head-of-the-class device, it’s still not going to succeed as it probably should.
I’ve always been a fan of the HTC hardware and even Sense to a certain extent. I finally got fed up with the hemming and hawing by HTC and the carriers regarding Android updates. There was no good reason that some devices were left out in the cold mere months after being introduced.
I moved over to the S3 and while it’s very slick, I’m still partial to my old OG. It’s a shame HTC may not be able to stay around much longer if this keeps up. Say what you will about Samsung, they’re not resting on any success and are being relentless in the marketplace.
I had been wanting the one for a while now. I loved the OG EVO so so much except for battery life. Then I moved on to the 3D it wasn’t so great. Now I have the 4GLTE love it but I’ve been waiting for 4G forever. Just got back from Chicago on vacation and loved having 4G when it worked it was great. I am used to not having a battery now and SD card I don’t have much on mine now and don’t move any apps over so 32 gigs should be fine for me too. But I also am starting to like the GalaxyS4 but I’ve had 3 EVO’s and will probably stick it out and get the one. Blink Feed to me seems cool. I don’t know what to do though still not a 100% sure.