Taiwan’s HTC Corp unveiled a new flagship smartphone on Tuesday, an upgrade to the award-winning HTC One that it hopes will claw back some of the market share lost to Samsung.<\/p>\n
The HTC One M8 has a 5-inch display, slightly larger than its predecessor, as well as improved camera technology, a faster processor and updated software, the company said.<\/p>\n
Chairwoman Cher Wang said at an event in London that the new device, which has a premium metal body, was an evolution of last year’s HTC One.<\/p>\n
The HTC One was lauded by critics, she said, and it was still winning awards, including ‘Smartphone of the year’ at the Mobile World Congress in February.<\/p>\n
“The best smartphone in the world gets better in every way,” she said of the new model.<\/p>\n
But HTC One – the group’s biggest selling model to date – was not enough to stop more than two years of sliding sales as the company battled rivals such as Apple and Samsung – the market leader in terms of sales.<\/p>\n
Just over two years ago HTC supplied one in every 10 smartphones sold around the world. In 2013 its global market share had fallen to just 2 percent, according to Strategy Analytics analyst Neil Mawston. The drop in its share price has also been precipitous.<\/p>\n
Its latest sales figures, for February, were 36 percent lower than a year ago.<\/p>\n
It is fighting back with a new line of cheaper handsets, including a mid-tier handset unveiled in Barcelona last month, as well as the HTC One M8.<\/p>\n
Analysts at CCS Insight said the HTC One M8 was a “make-or-break” device for HTC.<\/p>\n
“The company has learned lessons from the phone’s well-received but underperforming predecessor,” they said.<\/p>\n
“HTC must capitalize on the phone’s distinctive design and premium materials to re-establish itself in the market.”<\/p>\n
They added that the device would start selling almost immediately, beating new flagship models from Samsung and Sony to the punch.<\/p>\n
HTC results worse than expected<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n HTC moves CFO to sales<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n