[Galaxy S 4 General] BarryH_GEG:
Sony's Q1 which has only a month of XZ in it -

On a pro forma basis segment sales have increased approximately 18%. This significant increase was due to an increase in sales of mobile phones primarily resulting from higher average selling prices, reflecting a product portfolio shift to smartphones from feature phones, and higher unit sales of smartphones, partially offset by lower sales of PCs.​

And they sold as many Xperia-branded devices last year as HTC sold devices in total. Sony's a well-regarded and highly recognizable premium brand even though they don't get a lot of play on XDA.

From another thread...

So you think a company's health, financial condition, and position in the market have nothing to do with their products? HTC is in dire financial straits and it has nothing to do with me. And companies that aren't making money can't reinvest in R&D, properly fund marketing, and provide competitive levels of support. Ask a loyal Saab owner where they are getting their car repaired, what its resale value is, and how happy they are with their original purchase decision. A company's health and business outlook has everything to do with their products and customer support. LG and Sony are distributed multi-billion dollar companies and can fund turn-arounds in their mobile divisions. Motorola's owned by Google. HTC?

This is a good example of what happens when a company isn't making enough profit to support its operations.

February 13, 2013 - This week there’s a letter being sent to the heads at HTC from what reports claim is an anonymous defector from the company’s R&D department, this letter claiming that “more than a thousand” engineers have been asked to work 12 hour days without overtime on a regular basis. This system has been claimed by the anonymous letter-writer to have been called a “Responsibility System” and is having workers put in “1000 hours” of overtime work without overtime pay. While the letter has not yet been entirely authenticated beyond what Taiwanese publication MyDrivers claim, such claims will likely prompt a response from HTC rather rapidly.

According to MyDrivers, they’ve got word that “more than 5,000 internal engineers” are part of the Research and Development team that may be affected by this so-called “Responsibility System”. While the letter in question does appear to have been written and presented by a single disgruntled employee, it’s been claimed that “thousands” of engineers have been included in this demand for additional hours without overtime pay.

In January of this year it would appear that HTC Chairman Cher Wang was prompted to respond to allegations of “sweatshop” conditions, saying (translated): “every place has room to improve, but HTC’s workplace is based in an appreciation of each person at all times, with that appreciation applying to everyone, the company acting in that appreciation, not just in efforts to keep themselves prepared.” Note that that’s a rather rough translation, the original to be found at Sina Technological Age.

This newest incident appears to have once again created an environment in which the chairman is having to defend the company, saying this time that HTC has “always complied with the Labor Standards Act, except weekends and statutory holidays,” continuing on with notes that HTC “also encourages employees to make good use of annual leave and a good work-life balance.” The chairman spoke specifically about overtime, saying that “employees can still apply, but [overtime] is subject to the approval of the department head.”

As Unwired View‘s Staska notes,

there was a bit of a surprising gap in costs for R&D between the third and fourth quarter of 2011, with HTC cutting costs by a whopping 60%.

This announcement was included in Q4 earnings reports

without word of any equivalent number of layoffs

. Could it be that the costs were simply cut by having workers stay longer each night without equivalent overtime pay?​

http://www.slashgear.com/anonymous-...ibility-system-with-unpaid-overtime-08268630/