After almost a year after HTC shut down its India operations, the Taiwanese smartphone maker is planning to re-enter in the India market with two new smartphones that are expected to be launched early this month.
In July, last year, HTC India’s top management, including country head Faisal Siddiqui, sales head Vijay Balachandran, and product head R Nayyar, stepped down from the company.
‘HTC will offer many firsts in the smartphone industry with the new launch of its smartphone line-up with its legacy of firsts,’ media reported. HTC will reportedly sell smartphones in the country via an international distribution network. In India, Inone Technology is the brand licensee for HTC. With its headquarters in Shenzhen, Inone Technology is known for its smartphone manufacturing and retail business. Following the footsteps of Realme, HTC is planning to be an online exclusive brand in India.
Last year, HTC sold its design team to Google for $1.1 billion. While other Chinese players such as Xiaomi and Vivo were witnessing exponential year-on-year growth, HTC’s exit was described as a failure for not being able to judge the market.
The U11 and the U11+ were the last smartphones launched by HTC in February 2018 in India. Both these smartphones had good specifications on paper, but in reality, they suffered from hefty price tags (Rs 51,990 and Rs 56,990, respectively), especially when compared to other smartphones with similar features available at relatively affordable prices.
