HTC looking at 15 percent stake in global smartphone market

HTC sounds confident about the future of the company, at least from what was said in a stockholders’ meeting held on Friday. HTC head honcho Peter Chou told stockholders that the company expects a good return for its products in the near future.

HTC’s CEO has said that the company expected to capture at least 10 to 15 percent of global smartphone market in the future. This is comparative to the current 4 percent of the market share that the company controlled in the last quarter of 2012. This claim should be tempered by the fact that the competition in the market is fierce, with smartphone giant Samsung outgunning HTC at every turn. The main focus of the company should be to come up with a distinctive brand image. And according to Chou, the company is planning to do just that.

HTC CEO Peter Chou, while showing off the HTC One. (image credit: flickr)

While the CEO speculated double digit market shares for HTC in the near future, the claim can prove to be more than what the company can handle, at least for now. Samsung and Apple both boast a considerable share in the pie. Apple is known globally for its iPhone offerings, while Samsung has steadily built a distinctive niche for itself with the Galaxy series. Sony is also doing well with its Xperia series, with the company registering a profit after 4 years, 11 percent of which was generated from its smartphone offerings. 

Currently, Samsung controls 29 percent of the global smarphone market, while Apple is not far behind with a 22 percent slice of the pie, as noted in the last quarter of 2012, according to Annual Internet Trends report . 

HTC once held a 10 percent share overall, while some markets registered marketshares as high as 30 percent in some areas, according to Chou. And all the company needs to replicate that again is some time. While talking about this, Chou said, “We managed to maintain a 4-percent global smartphone market share last year and we are determined to do our best to expand the percentage to 10 to 15 percent in the future.” 

While addressing the competitive edge that other companies hold in the market, Chou said that HTC has spent heavily on the R&D department. Adding to this, the HTC head honcho said that the new HTC One is a strong player in the smartphone market, which is being promoted by four American telecom carriers in the US market. This announcement marked the first time that HTC has joined it with multiple US telecom operators to simultaneously promote the sales of a single HTC handset, said Chou, adding that this was only one part of what HTC has in mind in terms of marketing strategy.