Friday, February 28, 2014

The Newest HTC Stunner On The Block


Global mobile phone manufacturer HTC had been going through some rough times recently. HTC reported its first ever quarterly loss in the third quarter of 2013 with similar fluctuations predicted for the last quarter of the year. Come 2014, the company had been aiming at newer customer initiatives to take the brand forward in the best possible manner. According to company representatives, HTC is facing a plethora of challenges owing to its marketing and communication lapses and not its financial woes. Facing up to these challenges was outlined as the major goal for the company in 2014’s first few months according to Cher Wang, the company chairwoman. 

HTC Desire 816
Wang outlined specific initiatives needed to be taken such as direct interaction and communication with customers along with innovative marketing and new ideas for greater success and a company revival. HTC’s USP always was its top of the line technology, design and product competency. The company admitted to not having a finger on the pulse of the modern customer and vowed to find ways to amend the situation. The company has also been facing a radical financial upheaval over the past couple of years owing to falling sales and waning customer demand. Alongside, top company sources confess to the wide gap between the launch of innovative new products and their marketing and promotions which was hurting the company’s prospects all through this period. In what is slated to be a major revival operation from this mobile phone manufacturing giant, HTC recently launched the highly awaited Desire 816 which will be one of its flagship products this year.

The HTC Desire 816 was launched at Barcelona’s glittering Mobile World Congress 2014 recently. In a highly awaited development, the company confirmed that this successor and potential replacement to the HTC One would be launched formally on the 25th of March. The first smartphone from the HTC stable this year will be aimed primarily at the mid-level customer segment in terms of the most sales. This exciting new device was unveiled by HTC CEO Peter Chou and shocked many mobile phone enthusiasts who were expecting the MS instead. HTC has indeed surprised many tech experts and market followers with its mid range smartphone instead of the high end, premium smartphone many were expecting. With an eye on overall revival this year, the company is shifting its marketing focus to more mainstream levels which assure high sales volumes.

The phone looks and feels similar to the Apple iPhone 5C in many ways with its glossy body in plastic and its impressive specs. The smartphone will be available only in China from the 25th of March onwards and will be sold across other major markets from April. The design of this smartphone has been inspired by the HTC One to a large extent. The company is also looking at a price point that is considerably lower than the HTC One which can well be a winning strategy on its part. According to Peter Chou, CEO at HTC, the smartphone flags off one of the company’s many upcoming initiatives geared towards reaching out to more and more customers with fabulous design and usage experiences. He was clear about the immense opportunity present in the mid range market, prompting the release of this particular device. The HTC Desire 816 release date for the United Kingdom has not been announced yet. As for price updates, this may just be HTC’s flagship affordable smartphone for mainstream customers.

HTC Desire 816 Features and Other Specifications

The HTC Desire 816 will come with a truckload of powerful features and specifications. The smartphone will possess a 720 by 1280 pixel, 5.5 inch High Definition display unit. The smartphone will also run via a Snapdragon 400 SoC quad core 1.6 GHz processor. There will also be 1.5 GB of RAM along with 8 GB of internal phone storage. Storage can be scaled up to a staggering 128 GB via micro-SD support. This may well be the highest ever memory capacity sported by any smartphone. There will also be an HTC Sense UI for the phone along with Android’s 4.4 Kit Kat OS.

There will be a 13 megapixel primary camera at the rear along with a front facing camera of 5 megapixels. This smartphone will not possess HTC’s pioneering Ultra pixel camera technology however which was present in the HTC One series. There will also be a 2600 mAh powerful battery and HSPA+ and LTE connectivity options. The phone weighs about 165 grams and thickness stands at 7.99 mm. This will also be the first smartphone from HTC to possess capabilities for incorporation of nano-SIM cards in place of micro-Sim cards that are always compatible.

The smartphone will have red, white, yellow, black and purple color variants along with possessing Boom Sound functionality which is a unique HTC feature. Handling and usage experience should be good enough and the phone takes after the iPhone 5C when it comes to design, the rear and the bright colors. The front camera is quite capable as well when it comes to recording videos in high definition along with the high powered primary one at the rear. The phone should be a dual sim one with 3G connectivity operational for both.

The Final Verdict

This is indeed an exciting development for tech junkies and mobile phone enthusiasts out there. The HTC Desire 816 should be an exciting buy in the present circumstances especially due to the forecasted affordable and competitive price of the same. The company is looking at overrunning the competition in the mid range smartphone segment and this should ideally witness some aggressive pricing on its part. Overall, this smartphone offers a decent mix of features and other add-ons with the large display and camera features deserving special mention.

Expect this smartphone to outrun the HTC One in terms of consumer impact and overall sales. With such an attractive new launch, HTC sure looks to be on the right road to revival, resurgence and market consolidation!