HTC Sales Down by 64%

It appears that yet another one of the most-influential and best-selling smartphone companies of the last decade could be on its last breaths. HTC, which had the privilege of introducing the first ever Android device, has seen its sales fall by 64 percent over the past year.

The figures currently show it at just about 14.8 billion Taiwanese dollars ($456 million), down from 41.5 billion just a year ago. Profits dropped a monumental 80 percent, amounting to $80 million net loss, after managing to at least break even the same time last year.

There is light at the end of tunnel for a very strong reason, however: the sales report misses the release of the newly unveiled HTC 10, which has been seeing rave reviews so far and the pre-orders for the Vive virtual reality headset, which saw 15,000 units getting sold under just 10 minutes of pre-order launching.

All eyes are on the next quarter, though, which could be HTC’s most important ever in recent history. If the company manages to turn things around there, it could spell well not only for itself but for the entire industry which desperately needs competition at the higher level.

There are multiple obstacles between it and its success, like the kind of marketing budget which makes phones like the iPhone, the Galaxy S7 and the LG G5 such a hit and a household name.

Vive could still turn out to be a bigger success, though, and with HTC expecting it to bring 10 percent of revenue in the next quarter, don’t be surprised if virtual reality turns to be HTC’s surprise hit in the coming quarters.