HTC’s condition has gone from bad to worse. Being one of the first vendors to ship Android-based devices, the Taiwan based company has been witnessing its revenues fall consistently in the past three years due to lack of competitive products in the market.
The company had exited the Indian market in mid-2018, but a report now says that the brand name could make a comeback. HTC is said to be negotiating a licensing deal with Indian smartphone makers Micromax, Lava, and Karbonn. Basically, HTC wants these Indian brands to make devices for them, similar to what BlackBerry has been doing with Optiemus and Alcatel.
Since HTC is a known brand, the deal could give a boost to the Indian device makers and get back on track, especially since the market has been overtaken by Chinese names like Xiaomi, Oppo, and Vivo. It could be a win-win situation where Micromax, Lava, and Karbonn could earn by making the hardware and HTC could earn money via royalties.
There was a time when Indian OEMs owned a major share of the smartphone market. Today these brands are nowhere to be seen. They launch a device maybe once in two months but never manage to grab the attention of the crowd as they did in the past. These companies have also moved down to the sub-Rs 10,000 price bracket, to minimise the risks. HTC has been known for making premium devices, which means that if and when this deal finalises, these new HTC-branded smartphones won’t necessarily compete against the Indian smartphone markers.
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