HTC today took the wraps off of two new smartphones, and now it’s been revealed that we’ll only see a handful more devices from the company in 2017.
HTC plans to release half as many devices in 2017 as it did in 2016. Chialin Chang, HTC’s President of Smartphone and Connected Devices, confirmed the decision to Engadget, explaining that this decision will enable HTC to better focus on the core features of the smartphones that it does release.
This means that HTC will only release six to seven smartphones in 2017, Chang explained, including some “fun and affordable” Desire phones. When asked if there will be an HTC 11, Chang only said that the device won’t be named liked that this year.
HTC isn’t quite the smartphone superpower that it once was, and so consolidating its lineup of new releases to focus on the devices that it does release could be a good move for the company. Putting more focus on fewer devices could help HTC’s phones to better go up against the competition from the likes of Apple, Google, and Samsung.
Also confirmed today is that Sense Companion, the AI helper that debuted today on the HTC U Ultra and U Play, will gain more features throughout 2017. HTC plans to add support for third-party services like restaurants, malls, and cab-hailing services to its Sense Companion to make it a bigger part of users’ lives.