Words can not describe how important the One is to HTC. If it fails, the CEO will resign. The fact that it’s facing some delays due to component shortages is just heart breaking. Now HTC knows what they have to do in order to win. They have to cut the bullshit they’re pulling with Sense, and they need to launch a competent marketing campaign that succeeds in getting the word out.
While I highly doubt that HTC will drop Sense any time soon, DigiTimes says HTC is extremely keen on setting up a retail presence. They say that HTC is going to setup “330 experimental shops” and “53 large-scale exclusive stores” in Taiwan this year. Just to give you an idea of how significant that is, note that the population of Taiwan is just 23.3 million. That’s essentially one store for every 60,000 people. Apple has 250 stores in the USA according to Wikipedia. With a population of 314 million, that’s one store for every 1,256,000 people.
Translation: HTC doesn’t want you to be able to leave your flat without seeing one of their shops.
Will this aggressive strategy work? It has to.
