New HTC CEO Yves Maitre Faces Uphill Battle Amid Ongoing Losses
HTC's new chief executive Yves Maitre takes the reins after five consecutive quarterly losses and major layoffs. He discusses leveraging 5G and VR to revive the struggling smartphone maker.
HTC names Yves Maitre as its new CEO following cofounder Cher Wang's decision to step down from the top role. Maitre arrives from French telecom giant Orange to lead a company that currently faces five consecutive quarterly losses and severe staff reductions. The once-dominant smartphone maker, which previously held eleven percent of the global market, now routinely falls into the "other" category in industry sales reports.
Maitre compares his career move from Orange to leaving a large, slow boat for a smaller, faster, and more creative vessel. He acknowledges the company's recent struggles but expresses optimism about HTC's underlying technologies. The executive points to the Vive virtual reality platform and the blockchain-focused Exodus smartphone as key areas of innovation that he plans to build upon.
Despite these promising technological ventures, neither VR nor blockchain currently generates enough revenue to replace HTC's vanished mobile device sales. The company's massive $1.1 billion sale of much of its smartphone division to Google earlier this year leaves many industry watchers doubting HTC's future in the mobile hardware space. Maitre now faces the daunting task of proving that HTC still possesses the vision and resources to compete in the emerging 5G and extended reality markets.