HTC has been known to create some of the best looking mobiles to date. The Taiwanese manufacture has been at the forefront of innovation from the beginning, and this has led to it launching mobiles that were way ahead of their time. However, the manufacturer has not enjoyed a runaway hit till now, in that there isn’t a handset that went on to become a worldwide success. HTC mobiles price in India lists all the mobiles it currently sells in the country, and although there are a lot of mobiles on that list that could’ve been successful, most of them weren’t. There still isn’t a distinguishing handset that is unique to the brand. It is looking to rectify that with the launch of the One, which may yet go on to become one of the bestselling mobiles this year. Let’s take a look at some mobiles from the manufacturer which have not quite managed to attract consumer attention.
HTC First
Why nobody wants the HTC First
The first handset to come with Facebook Home integration, the First is a mobile that has never really taken off. And the blame rests solely on Facebook Home. The launcher felt half-done, and failed to gel well with other Android features. The fact that Facebook Home disabled the use of widgets meant that the mobile was lacking one of the most sought-after features in Android. The mobile itself wasn’t bad, and the internal hardware was actually quite good. But the inclusion of Facebook Home was what led to its downfall and ultimately the mobile has been discontinued less than 3 months after its launch.
HTC One S
HTC One S, An Uneven Number – 6/10 A solid product with some issues
The One S was the mid-tier mobile in HTC’s One series of mobiles it launched last year. Featuring a sleek design and strong internal hardware in the form of a 4.3-inch qHD screen, 1.5 GHz dual-core Krait processor, 16 GB ROM, 1 GB RAM, 8 MP camera and Beats Audio, the handset resembled the One X in its feature set more than the budget focused One V. The mobile should have done very well in the country. The reason it failed was due to the inclusion of an older-gen 1.7 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S3 CPU instead of the newer Snapdragon S4 offering it featured in the global edition. This led to the device being sluggish, and wasn’t able to handle Android’s Ice Cream Sandwich very well. The mobile’s initial price of Rs. 28,000 also contributed to its downfall. Micromax was already offering similar hardware for much less, and Samsung also got heavily involved in the mid-tier segment last year with the S Advance.
HTC Sensation XL
HTC Sensation XL Review
The Sensation XL is another mobile that should’ve done well but ultimately didn’t. The most glaring drawback was the 4.7-inch screen that featured a resolution of 800X480. Internal hardware in the handset also did not see any ground-breaking innovations, and ultimately the mobile failed because of the lack of marketing. Samsung went on a marketing blitz with the Galaxy S2, which led to consumers buying it in droves. The Sensation XL launched six months after the launch of S2, and by that time, Samsung had already built a huge consumer base in the country.
HTC Incredible S
HTC Incredible S Review
The Incredible S launched with the right hardware, but the timing was way off. HTC decided to launch the Incredible S a month after the Incredible was in the market, leading to a lot of confusion from consumers regarding the handset. And the fact that there wasn’t a major differentiation between the Desire S and the Incredible S meant that there was further confusion regarding the device. Thanks to a combination of these factors, the Incredible S did not sell well at all in the country.
HTC ChaCha
HTC ChaCha Review
HTC’s take on the QWERTY keyboard resulted in the launch of the ChaCha in 2011. The first mobile to feature a dedicated Facebook button, the ChaCha somehow never managed to take off when it comes to sales. The device came with a Gorilla Glass backed 2.6-inch touchscreen with a resolution of 480X320, 512 MB ROM and RAM, Android 2.3 Gingerbread skinned with Sense 2. While the mobile was geared toward a budget crowd, it never could gain traction as it went against BlackBerry’s Curve series. The Curve series already had a strong user base in India, and HTC could not market the ChaCha effectively in a market that already favoured BlackBerry’s offerings, which led to the mobile failing in the Indian market.
Did HTC’s CEO just sign his own resignation with the new One?
HTC looks like it can turn things around with the One as it has already crossed 5 million sales mark recently but again, that is only half of what Samsung managed to sell; around 10 million Samsung Galaxy S4. But then again, that could’ve been said of any of these mobiles that we talked about here. The One has been touted as the device that can save the struggling manufacturer, and although it was faced with availability issues in the beginning, the One is now available in India. Could this be the device that finally delivers a success? Only time will tell.