HTC is currently in talks with three of the biggest smartphone makers in India aiming to have its brand licensed out in the country after their tremendous failure last year.
Months after they exited India due to their failure to cope up with the rapid mobile innovations, rumors are spreading about HTC apparently in talks with Lava, Micromax, and Karbonn, three of India's biggest smartphone makers. The Taiwanese consumer electronics company is said to be teaming up with the three original equipment manufacturers to pave the way for HTC's return to the Indian mobile industry.
In July 2018, reports surfaced the internet that HTC shut down their Indian operations and sold their design team to Google for $1.1 billion. News outlets blame the closure to the company's failure to cope with the rapidly changing market dynamics. What made the challenge tougher for the Taiwanese company was how the Chinese players hastily invaded the Indian mobile industry.
CyberMedia Research interpreted HTC's downfall as the company's failure to anticipate the market realities as well as gauge the strength of the competition at hand. HTC was once called the darling of Indian users and was one of the three most successful in India's first decade of smartphones together with Apple and Samsung.
Although HTC continued to release their mid-range phones in India, the HTC Desire 12+ at RS 20,000 range, the company failed to give their loyal customers enough reason to choose Desire than the Chinese brands offering more innovative features at reasonable prices. Faisal Kawoosa, CMR Head-New Initiatives looks at HTC's being late to adopt or not participating at all as the main reason why the company lost track of the Indian market directions.
Now that HTC decides to once again test the waters in India with their new strategic options, Lava, Micromax, and Karbonn are seeing the partnership in a very optimistic view. The three Indian smartphone makers currently have not taken a place in the Rs-10,000 range being labeled as lower-tier brands. They believe that their partnership with HTC could help them secure a spot in the said range while the Taiwanese company tries to gear up for the Indian market one more time.
There remains no confirmation if the talks between HTC and the three Indian smartphone makers will cause HTC to halt their own smartphone production neither did the Taiwanese company release any confirmation regarding the alleged team up. An HTC spokesperson however assured that there will be more to announce at a later date and confirmed that the company is considering strategic options.
