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Updated: HTC spurns Mobile World Congress; new handsets on the way

Allan Swann
January 30, 2013

UPDATED: A more senior ranking PR spokesperson from HTC has contact What Mobile and told us that they will be attending MWC congress, but in a much more reduced capacity. The company is placing the majority of its focus on the February 19 event.

Original text:
HTC is looking to skip the mobile industry’s biggest event – Mobile World Congress – and is looking to launch its products at a London event just days before.

What Mobile has received an invitation  an unnamed HTC event on February 19 – where the company will presumably unveil its 2013 line of smartphones.

A spokesperson confirmed to What Mobile that HTC will not be attending Mobile World Congress, but would not confirm what would be unveiled at the February 19 event.

Mobile World Congress has traditionally been where the world’s mobile phone companies launch their latest and greatest devices – Apple has been a notable exception.

Leaks of new phones, especially the M7 (which is presumed to be the HTC One X’s successor) have been seen in the wild for some time, and will be vital for pushing HTC back to the top of the smartphone sales rankings. Despite excellent reviews for the HTC One X and its update, the HTC One X+ (see review here) – punters have not cottoned on. Embarrassingly  the company slipped out of the top 5 in  IDC’s smartphone rankings, as Chinese upstarts Huawei and ZTE took its place. Apple and Samsung still account for the majority of market share.

HTC has had a rough year, with its CEO describing its marketshare slide (it was the #1 Android smartphone brand in 2010) was due to poor marketing. This appears to be an attempt to step out of the white noise of MWC and perform a proper product launch on its own terms – something Apple and Samsung (and more recently, Microsoft) have used to great effect.

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