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HTC’s quarterly profits are in, and it’s bad news all round — a 91 per cent slump. All that could be about to change, though, as HTC’s just received the celebrity endorsement every smartphone manufacturer dreams of. Yes, an HTC phone is the go-to device of the Supreme Leader of North Korea, Sexiest Man of the Year and all-round badass horse-rider, Kim Jong-un.
The revelation comes from a photo released by North Korean state media, which shows Kimmy in a meeting with national security advisors, looking all leader-y with piles of paper, and, of course, the requisite smartphone positioned next to him on the table. The photo’s not totally clear in showing the device, but it certainly looks look a black HTC Desire.
Sadly, the free publicity may come a little late for HTC. Their net profit for Q4 2012 was down a whopping 91 per cent from Q4 2011, with revenues down 40 per cent in the same period. This means that not only are they seemingly selling fewer handsets, but their profit margins are being squeezed to dangerously low levels.
The only potential ray of hope for the beleaguered Taiwanese firm is news from China, where shipments are increasing significantly, and they’ve announced plans to move into the low-end smartphone market. Maybe that’s why they’re so happy with Kim Jong-un’s endorsement — though they wouldn’t comment specifically on whether or not Kim’s go-to device is an HTC, they did say that they “appreciated the support of all users”. [The Telegraph]
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Well it wouldn’t exactly have gone down well if he’d been seen using a Galaxy S III would it? Let’s not forget where Samsung are based.
How is it HTC are in such a bad position? I think I know more people with an HTC device than a Samsung right now, especially flagship vs flagship (I’m yet to see a Note II out in the wilderness). Maybe the buying patterns in Birmingham are completely different to everywhere else in the world…
Surely it should be the likes of LG and Sony that are having these sorts of diminishing profits, not HTC.
Most of my friends have come out of hTC and utterly disappointed with their software update support.
and exactly the same reason i have just left htc too
anybody who doesn’t root isn’t getting everything out of their phone, therefore shouldn’t be complacent about updates. if it’s a massive issue, root it. if not, sit and wait. it’s a clear-cut choice, and HTC actually do quite a lot for you if you chose to go for the former over the latter.
Or a Nexus 4 which is less than half the price of best sellers out there
Plus being with Google means an update straight from them.
I couldn’t root my desire s because hTC made it almost impossible. Many people on contract doesn’t root because it voids the contract by the way.
it voids the warranty, not the contract, and the warranty is dire to non-existent anyways. the Desire S, like most handsets, has a “one-click root” program for Windows – all you need is to unlock the bootloader which can all be done quite easily through htcdev. far from blocking root access, HTC actually offer a service themselves to unlock the bootloader, all at their own expense.
you could buy the N4, yes, but that’s a different argument. HTC are not the worst for updates – for the most part, it’s the networks’ fault – but it’s silly to compare anything else to a Nexus branded product.
True, my apologies. I guess I’m convoluted by the fact that I epicly failed flashing custom ROM on Desire S and hard for me to get over the fact that it’s a simple process yet after giving 2 days I gave up.
that’s fair enough. it’s a lot to get your head round if that’s your first device that you’ve tried to root – heck, I struggled to root a Galaxy S despite being a bit of a veteran on the matter.
s’pose that doesn’t excuse poor update schedules, but it’s pandemic in android atm.
That explains the outdated software with no update from hTC then
He’s not doing too well at his ‘Gangnam style’ dancing then…fat murdering bastard…who else needs a whole Horse!?