It was another tough month for HTC in May

Despite offering a flagship phone that has captured the imagination of many, HTC continues to suffer from marketing issues that are pushing sales down. We have rarely seen the amount of pre-release hype for any non Apple smartphone like we witnessed this year with the HTC One (M8). Yet, the manufacturer was not able to maintain this level of interest once the phone was released.

Revenues for the company declined 4.59% on a sequential basis in May to NT$21.065 billion ($701.4 million USD). Year-over-year, that figure represented a  drop of 27.37%. Ever since reporting its first ever quarterly loss in the third quarter of last year, HTC has had a series of rough quarters.

HTC says that May's results were just a blip and is still expecting its positive forecast for the entire second quarter to hold up. In the U.S., the company seems to be troubled by a marketing campaign that is just not grabbing any traction with consumers. Following last year's fiasco that saw HTC pay actor Robert Downey Jr. a reported $12 million for what essentially was one commercial, HTC followed up with actor Gary Oldman starring in new ads for the HTC One (M8). These ads show Oldman saying things like "Blah blah blah blah blah" and "Ask the internet." We have always maintained that successful smartphone ads show off features of the phone in action.

HTC is also dealing with a crowded high-end smartphone market globally. The Samsung Galaxy S5 and the LG G3 are competing for attention in the same niche, along with a phone like the OnePlus One. The latter can be purchased for now by invitation only, offering flagship specs for as low as $299. To get the sales it craves, HTC needs to take a different tact when it comes to marketing its wares, so that it can stand out from the crowd. 

source: TechCrunch