Struggling mobile phone Company HTC is attempting to go up against the Apple iPhone with their new HTC Diamond. Last week shares in the Company crashed as HTC tries to compete head on with Apple.
Introduced into Australia last month the Diamond is expensive at nearly $1,000 or $80 a month on a Telstra 24 month plan. Despite early agreements HTC has not yet made a phone available for comparison up against the “sold out” iPhone or other Windows based phones.
In discussions today with several Telstra resellers and Telstra shop operators the common consensus was that the HTC Diamond was expensive and “Will struggle to get sales up against the iPhone and the Blackberry”.
One Telstra store manager said “The HTC Diamond is up against both the Apple iPhone and the Blackberry. It is not seen as being a trendy phone because it is not known. Both the Blackberry and the iPhone are hot and trendy. If this phone had been launched months prior to the iPhone it would have got traction now they are going to struggle. Telstra likes this phone and will push this phone because it is able to run the Telstra applications unlike the iPhone which does not have a lot of Telstra applications”.
HTC who spend very little on marketing has incentivised Telstra to sell the phone by offering them an attractive margin and exclusive access to the phone for 3 months.
Last week shares of High Tech Computer (HTC) dipped significantly after the company released disappointing sales figures for July.
HTC, the world’s biggest manufacturer of handsets that use the Microsoft mobile operating system, said sales rocketed 45 percent compared with September last year toUS$269 million. However the big problem for the Company now say analysts is having to compete head on with Apple and the iPhone.
Although HTC said the third-quarter results were “in line with” expectations, the company’s stock price plunged 6.77% on the Taiwan Stock Exchange as investors and industry analysts had anticipated a better performance.
