It looks like those living in China may have to say goodbye soon to HTC. Well, at least their smartphone business. Reports are saying that the Taiwanese OEM has removed the smartphones listed on several online stores, including their own stores like TMall and Jingdong. This may signal the start of the long-rumored pullout of this specific part of their business in China. This comes on the heels of the other rumor that they will also be stopping their smartphone business in India.
Chinese website MySmartPrice reported that currently, the only available products on their TMall e-commerce site are their virtual reality (VR) headsets. For its part, HTC posted on their Weibo account that they are temporarily closing the Jingdong flagship store and the TMall flagship store in consideration of their “long-term business strategy” in China.
They re-directed people who want to still buy their smartphones and accessories to their HTC Official Mall and HTC VIVE Flagship Store in Shenzhen. They also assured users that they will be providing pre-sales and after-service sales. So this doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re closing shop already, although it looks like it’s heading there.
It’s no secret that HTC’s smartphone business has seen better days. Rumors flew that they will be discontinuing distribution in India since they have not released any new device since June 2018. But they are also reportedly talking with local smartphone vendors so they may also end up doing this strategy in China as well.
Despite all this, HTC said they will still be launching their 5G Mobile Smart Hub which they unveiled at the Mobile World Congress earlier this year. They are planning to release the device, which lets you connect up to 20 devices, in North American, European, and Australian markets soon. They also said they are working on the second generation of their Exodus smartphone, so it looks like they’re still trying to make this work.
