HTC: It doesn’t have Apple’s fate, but it has Apple’s diseases!

As a manufacturer in the mobile phone circle, it was on par with Apple in its heyday, pushing Samsung into a corner and ranking first in the Android camp; when it was down, it still maintained its integrity and dared to sell mobile phones at the price of iPhone. Even a power bank was priced at 447, and it even sold the simplified version of its flagship (HTC10 Lifestyle) at the price of the "high-end version" in mainland China... It has taken almost all the glory and honors; it has also silently endured all the disdain and ridicule!

That’s right, it is the well-known mobile phone manufacturer from Taiwan - HTC.

HTC's glorious era is definitely the most important chapter in the history of Android phones:

In 2006, HTC transformed from a mobile phone OEM to an independent brand. In September 2008, HTC launched the world's first Android smartphone, T-Mobile G1, in New York together with Google and T-Mobile. It was this phone that pushed HTC to the top of the industry. In the following years, HTC embarked on the "Road to King" with the dividends of Android and the speed of updating one phone per month.

Since then, HTC has been running wild in the Android market and has been unstoppable!

In 2010, HTC shipped 24.6 million smartphones, accounting for about 1/12 of the global smartphone shipments. The peak came in 2011. In that year, HTC's share climbed to 9.1%, sales reached about 43 million units, and the market value reached a maximum of US$33.8 billion, becoming the biggest winner in the Android phone market.

After the great rise came the great fall, and the second half of 2011 became a turning point in HTC's fate.

In the second half of 2011, HTC, as a representative of the Android camp, was sued by Apple for patent infringement, and then the United States imposed an import ban. This was a bolt from the blue for HTC, which relied heavily on the North American market, and HTC's performance in the European and American markets began to decline.

According to data from market research company Gartner, HTC's smartphone market share dropped rapidly to 4.7% in 2011, and its sales volume also shrank by more than 10 million units, which was obviously out of line with the record-breaking global smartphone sales of 207 million units at the time. In sharp contrast, mainland brands represented by Lenovo, Huawei, and Xiaomi emerged suddenly, and HTC was eventually squeezed out of the top ten mobile phone brands. Its stock price also fell, plummeting by nearly 90% from its peak in April 2011!

Since then, HTC's performance has continued to decline. By the first quarter of 2013, HTC's smartphone market share had dropped again to 2.5%, and its revenue had also fallen by 37% year-on-year. We all know the rest of the story: as of February this year, HTC's mobile phone business has been losing money for seven consecutive quarters, and its sales last year were less than a fraction of Huawei's. A generation of mobile phone overlords, from then on, can only make a living by working for Google. What a sad scene!

The glory is gone, but HTC's pride remains . Although last year's flagship HTC 10 had poor sales due to the "discrimination scandal", and missed a great opportunity, HTC was unyielding and resolutely released the new generation flagship U Ultra, and resolutely set the price at 5088, directly competing with the flagships of Samsung, Apple, and Huawei! This unyielding attitude and this overwhelming confidence are enough to be a model for future generations!

This is the best of times and the worst of times. This era can allow a startup like Xiaomi to rise rapidly in just a few years and become the number one in China. It can also cause a once powerful company like HTC to fall from the peak to the abyss, from being famous to being little-known... This is the choice of the market and the choice of history!

In the final analysis, no one can rest on their laurels for the rest of their lives. If you don't change, you will die. This is the eternal law of survival. No matter how glorious your past is, no matter how invincible you have been, the future will not come for losers, but only for winners!

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.