The thing about entry-level smartphones is that companies get to cater to a wider demographic, such as emerging markets where consumers are extremely price sensitive, where the difference in $10-20 could make the difference in a customer deciding to go with your brand or a different brand.
However it also means that it is an extremely competitive market where like we said, pricing sensitivity is the key, and it looks like this is a market that HTC apparently has no more interest in. During the company’s latest Q4 2016 results, HTC’s president of smartphone and connected devices Chia-Lin Chang revealed that they plan on getting out of the entry-level smartphone business.
According to Chang, she described the market as being “ultra-competitive” and lacking a “profitability perspective.” This is an interesting move considering that in the past couple of years, save for the company’s flagship phone, the rest of HTC’s lineup appears to have been of the entry-to-mid range variety.
Like we said there is appeal to such devices, but given how competitive the field is, it makes sense for HTC to want to focus their resources on marketing and developing their higher-end devices, especially when you consider that the company’s latest financials don’t exactly look too good.
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