Analysts say the HTC Bolt is fast, but will not turn around HTC's falling market share

Thanks to Sprint's LTE Plus network, download speeds on the HTC Bolt  run as fast as 450 million bits per second. That is according to a statement made from HTC to Forbes magazine. HTC's statement adds that network speed is the most important determinant to how fast a phone will run certain features such as streaming video and music, web brosing and sharing media over social media.

This is important because HTC decided to put an older Snapdragon 810 chipset inside the phone. Outside of including Qualcomm's last-gen chipset, everything else about the Bolt screams high-end model including a 5.5-inch Super LCD-3 screen with a 1440 x 2560 resolution. A fingerprint scanner is embedded in the home button, and with an IP certification rating of IP57, the HTC Bolt can survive a submersion to as deep as 3.2 feet for as long as 30-minutes. The 16MP rear-facing camera includes OIS, PDAF and an aperture of f/2.0. A front-facing 8MP camera takes selfies and handles video chats. A 3200mAh battery is on board, and Android 7.0 is pre-installed.

So you see, everything about the phone points to it being a flagship model except for the Snapdragon 810 chipset running the show. However, what could hurt sales of the HTC Bolt is the propensity of the Snapdragon 810 SoC to overheat. Strategy Analytics analyst Linda Sui says that tech savvy and wealthy smartphone buyers are going to  give the HTC Bolt a wide berth. "Hence we don’t think Bolt will lift up HTC significantly. HTC is still under the falling track," Sui said.

In addition, Eddie Han, analyst with Taipei's Market Intelligence & Consulting Institute, says he doesn't see large shipments of the phone taking place. He figures that HTC decided to use the Snapdragon 810 to lower the inventory cost of the model. He also believes that the relatively high price of the device ($600 retail price at Sprint) will keep shipments low. These analysts say that the Bolt will not help turn around the manufacturer's sliding market share.


The phone, which is exclusive to Sprint in the U.S., is offered overseas as the HTC 10 evo.
 


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source: Forbes