HTC, the Taiwan based smartphone manufacturer has shut its office in the South Korea as the country had too low sales of its handset, the company reported on Monday. HTC did not specify about the suspensions but said that its was doing some encouragement programmes for the employees in order to apply for the vacant positions in the company. HTC in a statement said “This is a hard decision that has direct impact on people who have contributed to the growth HTC has experienced the past several years.”
According to an analyst, Canalys, the market of South Korea has been a tough one for foreign manufacturer which also include HTC. In the year 2011, HTC had a share percentage of about 2% of the smartphone market in the country and in the first quarter of this year, it had a 1% share. 90% of the market is being dominated by Korean vendors which include Samsung, LG and Pantech.
Pointing at China, the largest smartphone market in terms of shipments, she said “They (HTC) have to invest in the more obvious opportunities in the short term.” HTC brought its latest smartphones to the markets of China very fast and also made the launch of the latest “Kewang” series of featuring low-end smartphones at the initial stage of this year. The company also shut its office in Brazil to reorganize its operations and left only its after-sales setup in the country. As per the reports by Peng, the market share of HTC in Brazil remained less than 1 % in the very first quarter of this year.
This Taiwanese manufacturer has witnessed a reduction in the recent quarters when its competitors, Samsung and Apple had huge rise. HTC had launched its One series smartphones and hence the company had expectations that its earnings in the second quarter of this year be stabilized. In the month of June, the company had low sales in Europe, less than it expected and hence it reduced the forecast of revenues. At the same time, due to the patent war with the iPhone maker, the shipments of its devices to the U.S. also delayed.