HTC said an updated version of the One smartphone, its first wearable device, and a renewed focus on marketing will help turn around the company this year after two straight annual declines in revenue.
'We feel positive and optimistic about 2014 when compared to 2013,' Chang Chialin, chief financial officer and head of global sales for the Taoyuan, Taiwan-based company, said in an interview yesterday at Bloomberg's headquarters in New York. He declined to provide a forecast ahead of an investor conference call scheduled for Feb. 10.
Once the leading smartphone maker in the U.S., HTC's sales dropped 30% last year as product delays and a shrinking marketing budget caused it to lose share to LG and Lenovo. A wearable device will be available by this year's Christmas shopping season after years of development and technical challenges, Chairman Cher Wang said.