HTC Corp. share price rises, releases its updated One M8 smartphone in an attempt to restore profitability

HTC Corp. announced at a presentation in New York that it is releasing a new version of its flagship One smartphone. The company hopes to make a huge comeback and restore its profitability in the quarter ending June 30th, while trying to become a worthy competitor to Samsung Electronics Co. and Apple Inc.

The company revealed that the updated version of its One smartphone – HTC One M8 – features a 5-inch high-definition screen, Snapdragon 801 processor of Qualcomm Inc. and a micro SD slot. The smartphones design is quite similar to the One model released by the company in 2013.

The Chairman of the company Cher Wang shared, cited by the Financial Times: “Were very excited. 2014 will be HTCs comeback year. It will be a good year.”

Only three years ago, HTC Corp. was considered as the leading smartphone company by shipments in the world. In 2013, however, the company dropped from the worlds top 10 rankings.

One of the analysts who work for Current Analysis – Avi Greengart commented on the new One M8 release for Bloomberg: “The new HTC One is certainly an impressive device — the design is stunning. It should sell well to early adopters who are looking for premium design, but HTC will need effective marketing to break through to mainstream consumers who are starting, and usually ending, their buying process with Apple or Samsung.”

The new version of HTC One is the first flagship phone after Ms. Wang took over the helm after the departure of Peter Chou. Chief Executive Officer Wang explained that HTC continues to be focused on manufacturing devices, which are based on the Android and Windows operating systems, but she could not say for sure if the new products of the company will be launched on China Operating System.

Ms. Wang said, cited by the Wall Street Journal: “For sure the Chinese government will ask us to cooperate with them… we are still deciding if we are going to be involved or not.”

HTC Corp. rose by 1.64% on Wednesday in Taiwan to close the session at TWD 155.00, marking a one-year change of -37.12%. The smartphone maker is valued at TWD 128.15 billion. According to the Financial Times, the 23 analysts offering 12-month price targets for HTC Corp. have a median target of TWD 97.00, with a high estimate of TWD 320.00 and a low estimate of TWD 72.00. The median estimate represents a -36.39% decrease from the last price of TWD 152.50.