HTC Slams Rumors Of Scaling Back Production

HTC One

Yesterday there were reports circulating that HTC Corp (TPE:2498) is in the process of reducing the manufacturing of its smartphones by 1 million at one of its plants, however, Taiwanese phone maker denies any such claims.

HTC has no such plans

However, a spokesperson of HTC, told CNET,  “HTC is not shutting down nor does it have plans to sell any of its factory assets.” Spokesperson added “HTC has a very strong balance sheet and will provide the latest financials in our upcoming earnings call to investors and the broader community.”

Recently, a news reporter from Reuters visited one of the HTC plants near Taipei Taiwan only to find a note on the Lobby Door reading, “Lobby is temporarily closed for use. Thank you for your cooperation.”

Reporter after talking to the people concerned stated that HTC in all probability will scale back its smartphone production line. This could have been a serious setback to the phone maker if found correct. The report also said that the Taiwanese phone maker has integrated two production lines into one, bringing down the production from 2.5 million per month to 1.5 million.

Focus on innovation, product development

After striking impressive sales number for many years, HTC has now witnessed a downturn.   Crippled with intense competitions from Samsung and Apple, HTC’s flagship HTC One failed to rejuvenate the brand name in the market.

Taiwanese handset maker disclosed a net loss of $2.97 billion ($101 million) in the three-month period that ended September 30. After its IPO in 2002, it was first the quarterly net loss. HTC logged in a profit of NT$3.9 billion for the corresponding quarter of the last fiscal, which stands in sharp contrast with this year’s loss.

In a bid to retain the lost ground, HTC’s CEO Peter Chou stated that he will make a greater effort towards innovation and product development, and will deploy some of his work to Cher Wang, Company’s founder and chairwomen.

Chou in an interview with Financial Times told he has become increasingly focused over past few months. He said, “Before that I was too busy,” “I took on too many things. I need to be more focused on innovation and [the] product portfolio.”