[Galaxy S 4 General] BarryH_GEG:
Taipei, May 5 (CNA) Taiwan's HTC Corp. maintained a 3.1 percent share of the global smartphone market in the first quarter, as its share gains in North America were offset by losses in other regions, according to U.S. brokerage Morgan Stanley.

The brokerage firm said HTC's market share rose slightly to 4.2 percent in the quarter in North America from 3.5 percent in the fourth quarter of last year, thanks to the launch of the 5-inch HTC Droid DNA phone, which went on sale in November through U.S. carrier Verizon Wireless.

But the company was not able to drive up its global market share, given ongoing share losses in the European, the Middle East and African (EMEA) markets and slow progress in the Asia-Pacific region -- especially in China

, Morgan Stanley said in a report dated May 3.

The report detailed how HTC's market share in the

EMEA markets fell to 3.7 percent from 4.2 percent

in the fourth quarter, with market share in the

Asia-Pacific region shrinking to 2.7 percent from 3 percent.

Meanwhile, the top four Chinese handset makers increased their share to 28 percent in the first quarter, compared with 21 percent in the same period of 2012

, at the expense of international brands including Apple Inc., Morgan Stanley analysts said.

"We view Chinese local brands gaining share as positive for (chip designers) MediaTek Inc. and Spreadtrum Communications Inc. Our checks also suggest strong smartphone chipset growth in the second quarter of 2013," the analysts said.

The top four Chinese vendors are Huawei Technologies Co., ZTE Corp., Lenovo Group Ltd. and Coolpad, according to Morgan Stanley​

http://focustaiwan.tw/news/aall/201305050014.aspx

China's like India in that it has a huge population but with a low percentage of people capable of or willing to buy high-end phones. Smartphone sales are rising in China but in the value categories. India has 2.37B people, sold 20MM smartphones in 2012, and only 1.5MM (6.5%) were over $400 USD.

China is seeing huge growth in devices sold at ‘affordable’ price points. Baidu is among those pioneering a sub-1,000 RMB ($160) range while, as an interesting editorial from China-based blog Tech Rice explains, factories in the country are churning out devices flashed with modified versions of Ice Cream Sandwich which are cheaper than foreign imports. “The second transition into no-name devices is coming on even stronger,” Tech Rice’s Kai Lukoff writes,

“‘Other’ now accounts for 39 percent of Chinese Android page views on Baidu properties, and growing.”

​

There's no doubt China's a huge opportunity and growing but there's no reason to think HTC's position in it is going to change significantly because of a single device. They face the same challenges there they do every where else - others with bigger marketing budgets got their first, they face tons of competition as the carriers carry competing desirable phones, and there's little prestige associated with their brand at the high-end and prestige is important in China. Bottom line is HTC needs help now and growth in China for them is a multi-year project (if they are successful). And the Butterfly was launched in China last year and was available in Asia during the period their market share declined there.

HTC's pretty much dropped off all the sales tracking reports because their volume has become so low. I know a lot of people want them to succeed but the odds really are stacked against them. And with their condition being so dire its kind of silly to think that a single device is going to be able to turn around a multi-year decline overnight.

I guess the new head of Android wasn't swayed by the One's design. ;)

Q: Is it a problem for Google that Samsung is so dominant, and makes almost all the money on the platform?

A: I realize this gets played up in the press a lot. Samsung is a great partner to work with. We work with them on pretty much almost all our important products.

Here’s my Samsung Galaxy S4

. [Pichai holds up the phone.]​

http://www.wired.com/business/2013/05/exclusive-sundar-pichai-reveals-his-plans-for-android/