HTC is hoping that the HTC 10 will boost sales and create a comeback for the Taiwanese smartphone maker. While the HTC 10 may have a chance of good fortune in the US, Chinese sales show a completely opposite story.
According to one English source, HTC 10 sales in China haven’t gotten off to that great of a start. Two major venues, TMall and Jingong Mall, show a total combined of just 251 pre-ordered units since the HTC 10 went on sale on April 25th. You read this right: only 251 units from these two major retailers have been pre-ordered. This is low demand for what HTC is touting as its best phone ever.
According to Focus Taiwan, analysts believe the low demand for the HTC 10 is due to the fact that HTC took the Snapdragon 820 processor, one of the best in the Android smartphone market, and swapped it out for a Snapdragon 652 (mid-range processor) just to lower the price point and make it more financially appealing to consumers.
The Snapdragon 652 processor is a decent mid-ranger, but it won’t outperform the Snapdragon 820, which has a number of strengths in which the Snapdragon 652 can’t compete. Additionally, it could be the case that Chinese consumers just feel cheated. Anyone reading about phones will know that HTC has cheated him or her in the HTC 10 by substituting a processor that just can’t keep up, and these consumers will buy from someone else who they feel didn’t “cheapen” their high-end smartphones.
HTC seems to have forgotten that it can’t afford to skimp on internals in order to sell its survivor phone. The company is on life support and can’t afford to make a misstep. We hate to say it, but it seems as though the processor swap is the company’s second mistake (after its breakup with AT&T to sell the phone – for reasons we don’t know).
