Former smartphone rising star HTC (Taipei: 2498) is looking everywhere except for the mirror in its quest to blame anyone for its sudden reversal of fortune, this time turning to the court room where it is suing Citigroup’s (NYSE: C) research unit for publishing false information about it. (English article) HTC saw its shares soar over the last few years as sales of its popular Android-based smartphones boomed, and it scored an impressive feat back in April when it passed Nokia (Helsinki: NOK1V) in terms of market cap. (previous post
) Since then, however, its shares have lost about two-thirds of their value, and its market cap now stands at just under $14 billion, or well below Nokia’s $18.7 billion despite Nokia’s own sharp share decline in recent months. In this latest twist for HTC, a Taiwan prosecutor is saying that HTC submitted its criminal complaint back in August, and the prosecutor’s office is now processing the matter. It strikes me as a little strange that HTC is trying to lay some or all of the blame for its rapid decline on Citi, as the company has been the main architect of its tumble by twice reducing its earnings outlook recently as its smartphones struggled to compete in the increasingly competitive smartphone space with popular models from Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL), Samsung (Seoul: 005930) and others. HTC has also been hobbled by a series of lawsuits against it by Apple, which is accusing it of intellectual property theft through its use of Google’s (Nasdaq: GOOG) popular Android operating system. Those lawsuits could ultimately prove a huge setback if US courts find in Apple’s favor, which would force HTC to stop selling some or all of its Android phones in that critical market. With all those factors working against it, perhaps HTC should take a step back and realize that the blame for its rapid decline lies squarely inside its own house, rather than on outsiders like Citi. If it’s smart, it will quietly drop this lawsuit against Citi, and focus its energies on pouring more resources into R&D and sales, and perhaps even find an alternative to Android to try and regain some of its fast fading luster.
Bottom line: HTC’s recent lawsuit against Citi looks like a diversion to blame outsiders for its rapid decline, which is largely due to the company’s own missteps and stiff competition.
Related postings 相关文章:
◙ Apple Suffers Setback in China Lawsuit Loss 苹果在华商标侵权案初尝苦果
◙ Nokia Looks For Fresh China Start With New Country Chief 诺基亚中国区新官欲扭颓势
◙ Guest Post: Move Over Nokia and RIM, Here Comes HTC
The telecoms world was buzzing over the weekend with a number of interesting news bits, including Huawei’s latest bid to win Western approval, a new wrinkle in an ongoing anti-monopoly probe in the broadband space, and the latest rumors of the imminent arrival of Apple’s (Nasdaq: AAPL) iPhone 4S to China. Let’s start with Huawei, China’s telecoms superstar whose efforts to enter the US have been repeatedly thwarted by politicians worried that the company is just a spying arm of Beijing despite its steady stream of efforts to prove otherwise. In the latest of those efforts, Huawei has said it will voluntarily restrict its business in Iran, a regular nemesis of the US and other Western nations that suspect it is trying to develop atomic weapons. (
Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) may be able to bully big names like Samsung (Seoul: 005930) by suing them in Western courtrooms over intellectual property (IP) infringement claims, but it may find the tactic more difficult to pursue in China, where it has just lost a major trademark lawsuit to a much smaller Taiwanese player. According to domestic media reports, a court in the southern boomtown of Shenzhen has ruled against Apple, the world’s biggest tech company, in a lawsuit it brought against Proview (HKEx: 334) claiming infringement of its iPad trademark. (
The latest signals from Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) indicate it may be preparing to tackle the China piracy machine by offering legal music online, hoping to succeed where years of government effort from both the West and Beijing have largely failed. According to media reports, Apple has just begun accepting payments in yuan for apps downloads from its Chinese iTunes store. (
After briefly considering a recent research report raising doubts about user numbers from Internet security software maker Qihoo 360 (NYSE: QIHU), investors seem to have brushed the information aside, preferring to believe the company’s hype. OK, I should probably be a little more fair and say that the recent bounce-back in shares for Qihoo, which I’ve previously criticized for its unethical business practices, was probably sparked by a strong earnings report this week that saw the company’s third-quarter profit nearly triple and revenues rise by even more. (
China Mobile’s (HKEx: 941; NYSE: CHL) brief chance to generate excitement for its struggling 3G network based on a homegrown technology is rapidly disappearing, with even the networking equipment sellers who once saw big bucks in the technology known as TD-SCDMA now starting to abandon the standard. Chinese media are reporting that the latest round of contracts to expand China Mobile’s struggling 3G network received only lukewarm response from equipment suppliers, who have quietly started raising their prices to help build a network based on the problematic technology. (
In what is becoming an increasingly common refrain, Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) has once again overlooked China in the global launch for its latest smartphone, the iPhone 4S, in what looks like an expression of growing frustration with its difficult Chinese partners. The company, whose China sales have exploded on the popularity of its smartphones, tablet PCs and desktop computers, has announced a second wave of launch markets for the newest iPhone starting next week following the initial launch in the US and several other major markets last month. (
