HTC Quietly Announces One ME Following Worst Profits In Six Years

HTC recently added a new device, the HTC One ME, to its product page in China, according to a report by TechMalak. The One ME features an improved 5.2-inch 2560X1440 display, a MediaTek Helio X10 octa-core processor and other minor improvements over the HTC One M9.

The announcement follows HTC’s worst month on record, as profits fell to a six-year low in April as HTC was plagued by flagging sales, according to CNET. So why are they announcing a new device now?

HTC has a lot of ground to make up if they want to remain a player in the smart phone market, and China is one of their biggest points of failure; not only is the Chinese market dominated by players such as Huawei, Lenovo, and Xiaomi, Apple has recently managed to drastically increase their Chinese sales — as previously reported in the Inquisitr. HTC needs to bring their numbers up, and a new launch is a good way to do that.

It’s not just China, though. Sales of HTC’s flagship device, the HTC One M9, have been poor across the globe, partially due to customer concerns with its Snapdragon 810 processor overheating. Qualcomm denies the rumors, citing the suspicious timing of the rumor, which started up around the time Samsung announced that it wouldn’t be using Qualcomm processors in the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge, but the damage was done. The HTC One ME features a processor from MediaTek, a Taiwanese firm, and the Chinese release may be a test release to see how the device performs before releasing it worldwide.

Pricing on the One ME has not yet been announced, but will likely be somewhat in line with the M9; although the ME is a superior device, it’s not by any great margin, and it’s been a few months since the M9 release.

Hopefully for HTC, they’re going to find a way to pull themselves out of the fire; the numbers aren’t looking good. In April, HTC reported a 38.7 percent loss of monthly revenue year-over-year, and a 32.4 percent loss month-over-month. That means HTC’s sales crashed over 30 percent after they released their flagship device, a period that would normally show a spike in revenue for a company.

HTC used to bank on the technological and design superiority of their phones — and make no mistake, from a technological standpoint, HTC made the best smart phones for a long time, and in many cases still do. Your mileage may vary on design but HTC also made the only metal-body smart phones for a long time, while competitors built with plastic.

Samsung, Apple, and other competitors are catching up now, and they’ve always had far better marketing. The Samsung Galaxy S6 was a massive improvement on the Galaxy S5, and the Galaxy series in general. The newest generation of iPhones included the larger screens many had been clamoring for. Foreign competition is closing the gap as well.

It remains to be seen if HTC can pull themselves out of the fire. It’s going to take some doing.

[Image courtesy HTC China]