HTC to Focus on Mid-Range, High-End Smartphones in 2019 in a Bid to Boost Sales: Report

HTC has been struggling with its smartphone business as of late. Back in August, reports had emerged that the company is shutting down its smartphone business. While the company was later cited to be working on a few models for late 2018 and early 2019, HTC Taiwan's president Darren Chen has reportedly further doused these rumours by stating that the company plans to reboot its smartphone business in 2019 by focusing on mid-range and high-end devices. The company hopes this will help improve its market share and profitability.

At a product event in Taiwan, Chen has been cited to state that HTC plans to continue its flagship U12+ lineup in 2019 so as to increase the lifecycle of the product. According to Digitimes, Chen maintained that the six-month-old smartphone is still amongst the best in the market when it comes to dual-lens cameras, and noted that sales for the 128GB variant of the smartphone have been robust since its launch in November. Chen also added that HTC plans to bolster its Viveport VR app store, with an aim to turn it into a full-fledged app platform for the VR industry.

The HTC U12+ was launched in May 2018 and served as a successor to the U11+ (Review). The smartphone became infamous for the lacklustre implementation of its pressure sensitive buttons, for which the company had to issue an update. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 845-powered phone is yet to make its way to Indian shores.

HTC unveiled the Desire 12 and Desire 12+ in India back in June 2018, priced at Rs. 15,800 and Rs. 19,790 respectively. Both smartphones feature a durable acrylic glass back surface, phase detection autofocus, and an 18:9 display. Globally, the company just launched the Desire 12s in Taiwan, which features the Snapdragon 450 processor, sizeable borders around the display, a rear fingerprint sensor, and a single camera setup at the front as well as the back.

To recall, late last month, HTC had been cited by Digitimes to say it would release smartphones in late 2018, as well as early 2019, refuting rumours that the company was shutting down its smartphone division.