While we all got used to the Samsung Galaxy S4 being popular and being praised all to God ever since it came out, what surprised me quite a bit was the fact that the HTC President himself even said this product is a really fine one. The context in which he said it and the purpose of that was quite surprising even for me. In appearance, the success of the Galaxy S4 was even more pleasing to HTC than it was to Samsung.
During a discussion with Business Insider, HTC North America President Mike Woodward said the following “It’s really been a great week for us. We look at the <the Galaxy S4 reviews> through the lens of the HTC One, and it stands up positively. The design seems to be attracting the most attention and we’re really proud of that”. This was said in regard to the sales of the HTC One. He commented that they are seeing “brisk sales so far” without going into too many details.
The Samsung Galaxy S4 has been generally lauded for its features and performance but the one are where the S4 seemed to fall a bit short was the design. The people’s expectations about the design and build quality aspect seemed to be off-put. The phone is significantly inferior to the aluminum unibody of HTC One and it seems that HTC couldn’t really be happier in that situation. But is a fancy body really enough to swing customers in the direction that HTC wants them to go?
The company has already had multiple set backs in their product. First it was the supply issues with the components, hindering production of the device. As if that wasn’t enough, they carried on with their streak of bad luck and hit a legal skirmish with Nokia in the Netherlands. Apparently they were infringing one thing or another, so that hindered their distribution of the product as well. Once the HTC One comes out worldwide, we shall see how much of an effect the body and design and inferior build of the S4 have to do with market shares and profits. As in many other cases, only time will tell the outcome.
