HTC, playing it all wrong

HTC, a ruler of the smartphone brand,ONCE! Rumours are running through the GOOGLE,the search giant, will take over HTC’s sales and services, due to its low sales. Coming down from the fame and might it had in the smartphone arena,now that’s all a history just like NOKIA.

HARDWARE

Presently, a major drawback that all of have noticed is the extensive use of  Mediatek processors in HTC, in the mid-range and budget segment. The mid-range is a sector where smartphones can boost their sales to a huge notch. HTC is screwing up that segment completely. Analyzing the phones that HTC offers in the mid-range, it is observed that the newest phones are also powered by Mediatek SoCs and thus are ruining their smartphone range. They use Helio X10 when the Helio X30 is available hands on. Mediatek processors don’t really give us the value which we expect from the smartphones in the price range. If it comes to cmparison, the Mediatek Helio X30, Which is considered to be a flagship, may be compared to the Snapdragon 435 SoC, where the Mediatek Helio X30 has a bit of upper hand, thanks to its Deca-core processing agenda. Mediatek processors are really not worthy the value when it comes to comparison with the 600 series line-up of Qualcomm. Vendors like Motorola, Samsung, LG, Nokia, Xiaomi etc are offering Qualcomm Snapdragon processors in the 12k to 18k segment.

Some might review that there phone consisting great camera and display quality, and put a question on the processing agenda. But, that should never be the approach. A camera or a display won’t save our phones from lagging or freezing. So its always advisable to buy phones with a fast processor, a decent amount of RAM and internal storage. That would be the real value for money. Mid-range Exynos SoCs should also be avoided as those also accompany high lagging issues in the long run.

MARKETING STRATEGY

The marketing strategy applied by HTC is also very poor. To boost sales of phones with Mediatek SoCs good marketing strategies are mandatory. It does not imply the application of hardcore marketing strategies opted by Oppo and Vivo. But the most important part is that HTC needs to create an awareness of their line up among the smartphone  audience. They should concentrate more on their off line markets as that is the major area of sale after the implementation of GST. This is the area where Oppo, Vivo and Samsung have kept their upper hand. Very few of us are aware of the display technology used by HTC in their smartphones i.e., the super LCD technology. It would be quite an impressive strategy to popularize their display segment. It’s a unique technology and would attract attention and create a big noise about their display quality.

ANDROID ONE

Another strategy that could be applied by HTC. Phones with stock Android experience, Qualcomm SoCs , decent cameras, HTC Signature  design and display and a good amount of RAM within the 12 K segment would be a excellent strategy to gain their pride in the smart phone arena being par with the chinese manufacturers . Coupling it with decent marketing strategies would sow their seeds for a better tomorrow in the smartphone competition market.

BEZEL –LESS DISPLAY

In the arena hyper-competition, this technology seems a great notch to acquire the market. This is the latest trend in smartphones and seems to be an arcade strategy. Practically, it seems quite a myth, but it makes a smartphone visually classy and who would not desire a premium looking smartphone. In this regard HTC is falling back by miles because no smartphones  by HTC has still even rumoured 18:9 display. The 18:9 strategy has been already used by tech-giants like Samsung, LG, Apple, Vivo and Gionee. Lately, Micromax and Xiaomi have also joined the race. If they could couple their super LCD technology with the Bezel-Less design, they could attract a lot of crowd. Even the latest flagship HTC U11 possesses the old 16:9 display and that’s a pity.

ION-STRENGTHENED GLASS

This is not completely practical enough though. Basically a marketing Jargon, but still a good strategy to get a good point of sales embraced. This strategy is employed by Apple Widely to boost the sales of their iPhones. It reduces easy scratches on the screen and makes it a bit more resistant to shatters compared with ordinary Gorilla Glass. The term Ion-Strengthened Glass refers ti a method to chemically increase the hardness of a piece of glass by heating the glass and exchanging sodium ions present in the glass with potassium ions brought by a bath of potassium salt. Because the potassium ions are bigger, it makes the glass stronger when the glass cools down. This process helps in the strengthening of glass without any optical distortion which is very helpful while protecting a multi-million pixel display. The technology could be employed by HTC but I am not pretty sure if this is applicable in the mid-range segment. If the application of this technology would increase the price of HTC’s already high-priced line-up by 3 to 5 bucks, then such would be completely bizarre.

ULTRA-PIXEL CONCEPT

It’s a marketing Jargon basically though there are technical modifications. The ultra-pixel developed by HTC is some sort of a bizarre marketing strategy which effectively brought their sales down. The ultra-pixel concept relates to the idea of increasing the size of the pixels on the same sensor which increases the amount of light entering each pixel. This aids in low-light photography. While the low-light photography is improved to a great extent, the images produced are quite noisy and image processing also becomes very slow. If this is not accompanied by OIS (Optical Image Stabilization), the image production quality even is broad daylight becomes a pity. Due to large pixel sizes, the number of megapixel that could be incorporated in a sensor arguably decreases and thus HTC is compelled to produce phone with 4 ultra-pixels. Many mistook it to be 4 Mega-pixels and thus the sales of HTC due to brilliant camera decreased drastically.

               It really feels to see a ruler of the smartphone market being dusted to the sands of nostalgia and thus hoping for a bright future of HTC.