Cheap smartphones will return us to profit, says HTC

Concentrating less on the HTC One and more on mid-tier handsets is company's future, says CFO

HTC has said it is relying on mid-tier (read: cheap) mobile devices to help return the company to profit in 2014.

Following 2013 figures that saw the company's sales drop 38 per cent to only $319.23m (£194.6m) in 2013, HTC CFO Chialin Chang has revealed that the company is pinning its recovery hopes on a greater range of products.

"What we're shipping in there, we want to make sure is competitive," he told investors and analysts.

HTC's share price has been steadily declining for three years, since the company's early lead in the Android smartphone arena was stolen from it by companies such as Samsung, LG and Google's in-house tie-ups with these companies and others.

Co-founder and chair Cher Wang assessed the problem as being the company's focus only on its "flagship" products.

"We missed a huge chunk of the mid-tier market," she said.

Wang was probably referring specifically to the HTC One, which got largely positive reviews but has failed to make a signifcant dent in the sales of Samsung's rival high-end device, the Galaxy S4.

Various models in HTC's Desire series enjoyed a long shelf life as mid to low tier handset choices, and it seems HTC wishes to return to this model as the likes of ZTE and Huawei are arriving on the Android market, not to mention many cheaper Samsung models.