What HTC can Learn from the iPhone 5C Launch

Credit - WikiCommons John Karakatsanis

HTC is reportedly going to focus more on the mid range smartphone category in order to increase sales. Will this strategy work? Here is a look at what the company can learn from Apple and the iPhone 5C.

In many ways people don’t buy smartphones, they buy brands and what the brands represent. When people hear the name Apple they think of innovation and they think of a premium brand.

Irrespective of how useful the fingerprint scanner on the iPhone 5S is, people associate Apple with something grand and something to aspire to. For many people owning an iPhone or an iPad is all about status it entails rather than the utility of the device.

The launch of the iPhone 5C was a big gamble for the company. For a company to position their product as something cheap or affordable would have raised eye brows of many marketing experts.

The idea of a premium brand selling something cheap could be a road to disaster. Fortunately Apple got its pricing strategy just right to ensure that the iPhone 5C is not a disaster. Many however wonder how successful the launch really was.

When people hear the name HTC they are not able to associate the brand with anything substantive. Samsung is seen as an alternative to Apple and Sony has made a name for itself with its high quality cameras.

This is not to say that HTC smartphones are in any way inferior. But the company needs to focus on sending out a single message to its customers if they want to gain more market share.

If they fail to do that the bean counters in the company will take over and launch a smartphone in every category with the most recognisable name it can think of. HTC One is a popular name already but will the next iteration be named HTC One 2 or HTC M8? 

If they choose to name the next iteration as anything but HTC One 2 it would mean more expenditure in terms of a brand building exercise. With more mid range smartphones being launched by the company people may not be able to register the HTC M8 as a premium phone capable of taking on the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S5 or the iPhone 6 in the market.

In many ways Samsung may also have diluted the brand value of “Galaxy” by launching multiple devices with a “Galaxy” in it. Perhaps this partly explains why the company witnessed less than expected sales of its flagship Galaxy S4 and are now in a hurry to launch the next iteration - the Galaxy S5.

Will the upcoming HTC M8 change the fortunes of the company? Or will customers further gravitate away from HTC to look for alternatives? That would depend mostly on the smartphone itself. If the company can pull a stunning a new phone with first to the market features it may do well. Any smartphone with only comparable features at affordable prices may require some extraordinary marketing efforts.