HTC One delayed due to parts shortage: report
The roll-out of the One, the new flagship smartphone from Taiwan tech giant HTC, has been delayed due to a component shortage.聽
And to the Wall Street Journal ( to CNET), the hold-up may have something to do with HTC's less-than-stellar performance in the international smart-phone market. In an article published today, the Journal reports that "HTC has had difficulty in securing adequate camera components as it is no longer a tier-one customer."
The top-tier customers being referenced here, of course, are Samsung and Apple, who together for more than 50 percent of all global smart-phone shipments.聽Compared to them, HTC is a small fry. In fact, the company the list of the top five global smart-phone manufacturers.聽
"Reading between the lines of the corporate-speak reveals a pretty shocking admission that HTC is not in the cool-kids club anymore," Eric Mack of CNET, "at least in the eyes of the industrial supply chain that makes the magic happen."聽
HTC is betting big on the HTC One, a sleek, sharp phone powered by a Qualcomm quad-core processor. And early reviews of the device have been largely positive.聽
"Stunning, elegant, innovative, mind-blowing, gorgeous, loud, beautiful, and fun are just some of the adjectives I could use to describe the聽HTC One," Matthew Miller of ZDNet.聽"I have tested hundreds of phones over the years and in my opinion the HTC One is the best-designed phone I have ever used."聽
Of course, reviews like Mr. Miller's won't mean much if HTC can't get the One to consumers in a timely manner.聽
When will the device actually ship? Well, it was meant to go into wide release by this month. But the manufacturing hiccup HTC won't hit peak shipping volume until early April.聽
For聽more tech news, follow us on聽.
