Free HTC Phone !

 Almost three hours into HTC’s annual shareholders’ meeting Thursday, investors still didn’t let up: Where are the  free phones?

Nearly 2,000 HTC shareholders packed into a ballroom at a three-star hotel 30 kilometers away from capital Taipei, to attend HTC’s annual meeting.

The turnout was unusually high:  Hundreds of them had to stand in aisles or outside the ballroom while shareholders took turns venting their frustration at the beleaguered smartphone maker.

Many of them said they were expecting a free cellphone, as HTC gave them out last year. Instead, each of them were given a free thermos,  fruit juice and some bread.

There were also 200 HTC phones for a lucky draw.

One shareholder, who rode on a motorcycle for over an hour to come to the meeting said a free phone would have made him “feel better about HTC’s sinking share price.

HTC shares have lost 90% from their peak in 2011. In just three years, HTC fell from being the world’s top smartphone maker using Google’s Android operating system, to an embattled Taiwanese brand with a global market share of just 2%.

HTC forecast last month it would return to a profit in the second quarter after three quarters of operating losses, although revenue in the current quarter is likely to drop to between 65 billion New Taiwan dollars and 70 billion New Taiwan dollars (US$2.16 billion and US$2.32 billion), from NT$70.7 billion a year earlier.

“You missed the golden window in cracking China’s market over the past two years, when Apple AAPL +0.11% still wasn’t that big there. I wrote letters to the company urging you guys to move quickly, but I got no response,” a shareholder said.

Another shareholder said: “We are here because we are concerned about the share price. Yesterday, the Taiex [Taiwan’s benchmark index] hit a six-year high, but our share price was still in the doldrums. Are there hopes that the share price will recover?”

As shareholders continued to blast the management, Chairwoman Cher Wang, Chief Executive Peter Chou and Chief Financial Officer Chang Chialing took to the stage, composed and upbeat.

“You should all be proud of being shareholders of HTC,” said Wang. “We are facing competition from not only Samsung and Apple but Huawei and Xiaomi.

But our executives didn’t leave the company and are still committed despite a drop in sales.” The company said last month that it is on the road to recovery.


It has launched a high-end flagship smartphone, dubbed HTC One (M8). The company is hoping the new device, which features a sleek metal design, will help turn around falling sales.


The company has also introduced smartphones priced as low as US$145 this quarter to grab a bigger share in emerging markets.


HTC  started outsourcing production of some of its smartphones this quarter– the first time HTC did so– in a bid to contain costs. HTC also hired Samsung’s former U.S. marketing chief, Paul Golden, as a consultant to shore up marketing.

The company had said a pretax gain of US$2 million from offloading a stake in a Chinese private-equity fund would help its earnings in the current quarter.