Can the former Android giant, which has suffered consecutive losses, return to its glory by relying on these businesses?

I believe that in recent days, everyone must have been flooded with the movie "Ready Player One". Whether the plot of "Ready Player One" is exciting or not is not the point, but the depiction of the virtual VR game world in the movie must have touched many people.

The same is true. VR, a technology that was once very popular, has once again been brought to the forefront.

Of course, the word "popular" doesn't seem to be appropriate here. The rapid rise and fall of VR makes people doubt whether VR has ever been popular. To be honest, 2016 can indeed be called the first year of VR, but after the first year, there should be a long period of technological accumulation. In fact, until today we are still in the exploratory stage of VR development.

The previous popularity of VR was just a hype by capital. Now that the VR market has receded, the remaining manufacturers who are still persisting must have a true passion for VR. Among them, HTC has to be mentioned.

When we mentioned HTC in the past, we would say it was a top smartphone company. But now, when we mention HTC, we are more likely to say it is a VR company.

Unlike its booming VR business, HTC's mobile phone business has hit rock bottom and is unlikely to "survive." This was further confirmed after HTC sold part of its smartphone team to Google.

HTC's business continues to be sluggish

HTC is indeed having a hard time these days, as it has weakened its main revenue-generating smartphone business (of course, the performance of this business is also very poor), and invested most of its funds in the VR field, which is unlikely to yield returns in the short term.

According to the latest financial report released by HTC, in the fourth quarter of 2017, HTC suffered a net loss of NT$9.8 billion (about US$337 million), which was twice the loss in the same period of 2016. HTC said that the main reason for the loss was the write-down of inventory products and the decline in revenue.

In other words, HTC's product sales are indeed not optimistic.

Although HTC had accumulated a lot of capital by selling office buildings and smartphone teams in the early years, it was clear that HTC failed to use this capital for investment. The losses for 11 consecutive quarters were enough to prove that HTC was not successful in financial investment. On the contrary, the company's loopholes were getting bigger and bigger.

So, where does the problem come from?

Such a dismal financial report is naturally hard to satisfy. Not only HTC shareholders, but even a former loyal fan like me want to know what happened to HTC?

Many people like to regard the lawsuit between HTC and Apple as the beginning of HTC's decline, and some people regard the failure of HTC One X as a signal of the decline of HTC's smartphone business. But neither the lawsuit nor HTC One X is the real reason for HTC's fall. In the final analysis, the failure to judge the market trend and the lack of respect for consumers are the root causes of HTC's failure.

HTC's mistake is fundamentally wrong.

We can skip the overseas market and talk about the domestic market alone. If you still remember the HTC M9 phone, you will definitely not forget its brother, the domestic exclusive model HTC M9+.

If the HTC M9's three-generation quad-chin design has challenged consumers' bottom line, then the HTC M9+, which is equipped with a MediaTek Helio X10 processor, still has a quad-chin and is priced at 4K+, blatantly shows disrespect for domestic consumers.

You know, this is a flagship product exclusively for the mainland. The price is flagship, but what about the configuration?

HTC M9+ has broken the hearts of domestic consumers, but if HTC admits its mistakes and corrects them, it will probably be able to win back some consumers.

But later, HTC 10, which HTC had high hopes for, was only available in a low-end version in China, and the low-end version was still priced at the flagship version. In this way, HTC said goodbye to the last batch of fans in China and lost the possibility of a comeback.

After HTC 10, HTC began to pay attention to the domestic market. The problem is that 80% of the sheep have already run away, so how can it attract new consumers?

You know, the HTC phones after HTC 10 are quite distinctive, but they all lack core competitiveness. Compared with competing products, they are not outstanding in configuration and have no price advantage.

Can VR save HTC?

The reality now is that HTC will definitely give up its smartphone business in the future. We are curious about when HTC will give up its smartphone business. On the other hand, we are also curious about whether the VR business can save HTC.

For most consumers, HTC VIVE VR may just be a gaming device. In fact, this is related to the overall promotion strategy of the current VR market.

For mass consumers, it is reasonable to promote it through games. But for HTC, VR is obviously not just a gaming device, but a productivity device and a form of expression that carries the next generation of art.

From the virtual game world mentioned at the beginning of this article to the recently launched virtual reality art project VIVE Arts with a multi-million dollar investment, HTC has a grand plan for the future of VR. From film art to fashion week, from games to interactive programs, VIVE VR has already extended its reach to many fields.

HTC's idea is great. We also believe that with the entry of capital, VR will surely bring us into a better future. But for HTC, the question may just be, can it hold up until the day when VR really takes off?

No one can answer this question.

Summarize

We all yearn for the world in Ready Player One, and hope that one day we can go one step further and realize everything depicted in Sword Art Online. We also know that VR is the only solution to help us achieve all of the above, but the current VR technology still has a long way to go to achieve what we want.

For HTC, betting on VR is reasonable and correct. However, after experiencing 11 quarters of losses and selling its smartphone business, what kind of difficult future will this manufacturer, which started out as an OEM and rose to prominence with smartphones, face?

When a company's fate is bet on VR and an uncertain future, all we consumers can do is probably just wish it the best.