HTC Ditching Low-Cost Smartphones For 2017, Will Focus On High-End Devices Instead

HTC is mostly known for its high-end smartphones, but the company has also released some entry-level devices as well. However, it appears that HTC will solely focus on high-end device this year.

In a conference call earlier this week, HTC said that it will exit the entry-level market by completely ditching plans for low-cost phones, according to Phonescoop. The company stated that it wants to shift its focus to high-end, high-margin devices for better profitability.

This isn’t the first time that the Taiwanese phone maker has cut back on its smartphone production. In 2012, HTC did the same strategy by only launching high-end smartphones while also backing away from the tablet market, according to The Verge.

In January, HTC’s president of smartphone business Chia -Lin Chang told Engadget that the company is planning to release six to seven phones for 2017. The executive says that this would allow the company to focus on its core smartphone features to better compete with its rivals.

Last month during CES, HTC announced the HTC U Play and the U Ultra which are scheduled to start shipping on March 8. The U Ultra’s pre-order price in the U.S. is $749, while the smaller U Play’s pre-order price in the U.K. is £399 (around US$499). It’s possible that HTC’s upcoming phones for the rest of the year will arrive in same price range.

One of those phones is the upcoming flagship codenamed HTC Ocean. The device is believed to be the successor to last year’s HTC 10. Chang did say in an interview with Tbreak that the HTC 10’s successor won’t be called the “HTC 11.”

The HTC Ocean is rumored to come with a 5.5-inch 1440p display, a Snapdragon 835 processor with 6GB of RAM, 32/64GB storage and 12MP and 8MP cameras. The handset is speculated to launch sometime during the second quarter of 2017 (April-June).