HTC's One flagship smartphone is a big deal for the Taiwanese device maker, but that's not the only big new thing going on at the company. HTC Chief Marketing Officer Benjamin Ho has revealed to The Wall Street Journal that his firm is axing the "Quietly Brilliant" tagline that's been used in its advertising for some time now in favor of some new, bolder marketing. "We have a lot of innovations but we haven’t been loud enough,” Ho explained. One such example is HTC's attack on the Samsung Galaxy S 4, referring to the device as "#thenextbigflop" on Twitter. Ho also said that HTC will be stepping up its advertising efforts by growing its digital marketing budget by 250 percent from 2012, while its traditional marketing budget will grow by 100 percent.
As I've said before, the One is an important device for HTC. Lately we've watched as Samsung has been dominating the Android market while most other manufacturers are lagging behind in market share, and HTC is no exception. The good news is that the One will enjoy broad availability, hitting 185 operators around the globe, including AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile here in the U.S. While that alone is no guarantee that the One will be a hit with consumers and help to turn around HTC's fortunes, it's certainly a good start.
In addition to talking up HTC's new marketing efforts, CMO Benjamin Ho reaffirmed that component shortages are to blame for the recent delays of the One. Ho explained that because the One's UltraPixel camera was created specifically for HTC, it's more difficult for production of the part to be quickly ramped up. HTC recently confirmed that the One is finally almost ready for launch, though, with releases in the U.K., Germany and Taiwan set for this week. A North American debut is scheduled to go down before the end of April.
