HTC, Squeezed By Apple And Xiaomi, Plans 'Significant' Job Cuts As Market Share Dwindles

Smartphone maker HTC said Thursday that it will cut jobs and discontinue some of its models in order to compete with market leaders like Apple and Samsung in high-end devices. This is due to significant losses in market share for the Taiwanese company during this year's second quarter.

“The cuts will be across the board,” HTC Chief Financial Officer Chialin Chang said, Reuters reported. “They will be significant.”

While he did not specify how many jobs will be cut, Chang did say that the cost reductions will continue into the first quarter of 2016 but declined to comment further. The company also forecast preliminary losses for this year's third quarter.

So far in 2015, HTC shares have fallen 51 percent. It has reported disappointing sales -- particularly in the Chinese market, with competitors like Huawei dominating sales. Huawei recently replaced Microsoft as the global No. 3 phone maker. HTC has also been undercut by Chinese upstart Xiaomi in the budget sector, and is squeezed at the high end by offerings from Samsung and Apple.

The company said it will streamline is product portfolio and focus on flagship devices that can compete with the likes of Apple's iPhone 6 or Samsung's Galaxy S6. For a company that previously was quite popular, it's a marked decline. “We believe HTC will keep losing share in the smartphone market and will keep losing money,” analyst Calvin Hunag, with Taiwan’s SinoPac Securites, told Reuters.