HTC Corporation has replaced Peter Chou with Cher Wang to take the new role of CEO. Cher Wang who is the co-founder and chairperson of HTC Corporation since 2007 is considered one of the most powerful and successful women in technology.
Chou, 58, presided over HTC’s rise to the top of the U.S. smartphone rankings, the settling of a patent dispute with Apple Inc. and the purchase and sale of Beats Electronics. His reign also saw the stock drop and market share shrink as HTC suffered at the hands of cheaper models from Xiaomi Corp. and the broader lineup of Samsung Electronics Co.
HTC has really seen bad times with declining profits and low patronage. We are not even sure if the new HTC one M9 will save them from the constant fall. Their latest flagships have not attracted enough fans convincingly unlike their Samsung and Apple Counterparts.
Chou steered HTC, initially a contract manufacturer for global brands including Compaq Computer and T-Mobile US Inc., toward creating its own label. He also encouraged Android founder Andy Rubin to continue developing the smartphone platform that was later bought by Google Inc.
In 2008, HTC became the first smartphone maker to offer devices using the operating system when it released HTC Dream.
In the past 12 months, HTC has diverged from its phone-only strategy to add a periscope-shaped RE action camera, a smart wristband in cooperation with Under Armour Inc. and a virtual reality headset powered by Valve Corp.’s Steam software.
HTC posted its first quarterly revenue growth in more than three years in January as new mid-range devices helped offset competition from the new iPhone 6 models. The company posted an operating profit of about NT$180 million for the quarter, compared with analysts’ estimates for a loss of NT$30.4 million.
In an official statement, Cher Wang said that she was looking forward to new opportunities in her role as CEO:
We are seeing rapid changes in the industry, with the smartphone as our personal hub connecting us to a growing world of smart devices. We pioneered the smartphone industry; now we are applying that thinking to realize the potential of a new generation of connected products and services. The overwhelming response that our virtual reality product, HTC Vive, received earlier this month underlines the importance of these new connected technologies for our future.
As an entrepreneur at heart, I am excited to see so many new opportunities, and I am honoured to accept this opportunity to help shape the next stage of HTC’s development.
