The culprit seems to be the overheating Snapdragon 810

May 5, 2015 12:00 GMT  ·  By

Back at MWC 2015, HTC took the stage and unveiled its latest One M9 flagship smartphone, a few hours before Samsung rolled out its own Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge monsters.

Naturally, everyone was wondering which flagship would end up dazzling smartphone enthusiasts around the world, and sadly, it appears HTC has already lost the battle.

According to a new report coming out of Taipei Times, the Taiwanese company’s revenue has fallen by almost 40% in the last period, and it seems that analysts believe the One M9 smartphone is to blame for the fiasco. Or more specifically, the Snapdragon 810 SoC inside it.

But let’s see how bad things really are. Last month, after the One M9 was launched into the wild, the company’s revenue plummeted by a staggering 38.6% compared to the previous year.

The HTC One M9 and its Snapdragon 810 scared away buyers

The aforementioned source says this constitutes the worst April revenue report in the last six years for HTC, with figures dropping from a hefty $730 / €655 billion to $439 / €394 billion this year.

The abrupt fall has been attributed to poor sales of the One M9 handset. An unnamed analyst commented that the phone maker might have underestimated the thermal issues plaguing the Snapdragon 810.

Although Qualcomm and some of its partners (LG in particular) have refuted such claims, it seems there is more than meets the eye while the Snapdragon 810 is concerned.

The same analyst goes on to mention that HTC only managed to ship out 4.5 million One M9 units since the phone launched into the wild. When it comes to the One M8, the phone maker managed to ship 8 million units throughout the same period a year ago (which represents a 43.75% drop in sales).

After announcing the One M9, the company also rolled out the M9 Plus and E9 Plus, two handsets that are not going to be sold internationally. However, their availability in retail might help HTC boost sales for the month of May.

It’s interesting to note that the mobile world seems absolutely taken with the Samsung Galaxy S6. A few days ago, LG unveiled its latest G4 flagship, but a report revealed customers weren’t really impressed with it. Well, nor were they particularly taken with the HTC One M9, so we guess Samsung wins this round.

HTC One M9 (4 Images)

HTC One M9 frontal view
HTC One M9 back viewHTC One M9 didn't really impress customers
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