HTC Smartwatch Coming During This Year’s Holiday Season

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Cher Wang, the chairperson of HTC Corp (TPE:2498), confirmed that the company has been developing wearable devices such as the smartwatch for years, and she indicated that its first smartwatch could be available during the holiday shopping season this year.

During an interview with Bloomberg, Wang said one of the main focuses of HTC Corp (TPE:2498) is to ensure that its first wearable device has a good battery life and display. She said, “Many years ago we started looking at smartwatches and wearables, but we believe that we really have to solve the battery problems and the LCD light problems. These are customer-centric problems.”

Wang did not provide further details about the product such as its target market, but one thing is definite—HTC Corp (TPE:2498) will not stay behind the competition and one of its selling point is the battery life of the smartwatch.

Marketing efforts

Wang co-founded HTC Corp (TPE:2498) together with the company’s CEO Peter Chou and former CEO H.T. Cho in 1997. According to her, they never thought that marketing is important for the company and admitted that their perception was not really very good. The management of the company realized their shortcoming in marketing after its popular HTC One smartphone failed to generate higher revenue for the company.

Wang said, “To tell the truth, we never think marketing is that important — this is really not very good.” Last year, HTC Corp (TPE:2498) hired Hollywood actor Robert Downey Jr. and paid him $12 million to promote the company.

During the interview, Wang also emphasized that there are different ways to reach consumers aside from increasing its marketing budget. According to her, “It’s really not only the budget increase, it’s the way how you spend the money. Is it smart? There’s a lot of ways to reach the audience right now.”

Dennis Chan, analyst at Yuanta Financial Holding Co in Taipei commented, “It’s a good thing that they’re recognizing the importance of marketing. I need to be hearing some good pre-order volume for their flagship handset, which I am not hearing yet [before upgrading the stock].” He has a Sell rating for the shares of HTC Corp (TPE:2498).

Stock performance

Last year, the stock price of HTC Corp (TPE:2498) declined 53%. After Wang’s interview with Bloomberg, the shares of the company gained. The stock closed at NT$132 per share, up by 1.93%. Over the past 52-week range, the stock fell from its highest price of NT$350 to as low as NT$122 a share.

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