Taiwan-based phone maker HTC Corp to turn to more affordable smartphones after last year's losses

By Nicel Jane Avellana

Feb 10, 2014 10:41 AM EST

HTC Corp said it will be growing its range of cheaper product offerings after experiencing growing losses for its premium smartphones, Reuters reported.The Taiwanese phone maker, which has long taken pride in its upscale, feature-rich products, said that it would need to offer cheaper smartphones after the losses it suffered in 2013. HTC is looking to reverse a sales slide for the past two years accompanied by a decline of 80% in its share price as its rapidly-growing Chinese rivals like Xiaomi Inc and dominant players like Samsung Electronics Co and Apple Inc muscled the company off-track, the report said.

In an interview last week, HTC Co-Founder and Chairwoman Cher Wang told Reuters, "The problem with us last year was we only concentrated on our flagship. We missed a huge chunk of the mid-tier market." Chang added that together with premium phones that can sell for more than $600, the company will be selling phones that range from $150 to $300 in the emerging and developed markets as well. It won't be getting in the "very, very low-end market," however, according to Chang, but the company will soon launch a new flagship phone, the report said.

The new approach highlights the company's need to address the problems it is facing. Just more than a couple of years ago, HTC supplied one in every 10 smartphones worldwide. Last year, however, HTC only held 2% of the global market share, according to Neil Mawston, an analyst at Strategy Analytics, Reuters reported.

Wang, who holds a 3.8% stake in the company, said HTC intended to improve its marketing efforts so it can increase its smartphone sales this year. She told Reuters that although the 2013 launch of its flagship HTC One phone got amazing reviews, this was not converted to robust sales, the report said.

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