AT&T and T-Mobile have apparently started a little spring cleaning and their online stores now have no trace of any HTC smartphones.
HTC was once among the most coveted smartphone brands and its One M7 and One M8 were widely popular worldwide. The company lost significant ground to rivals in recent years however, and it's been trying to make a comeback for a good while.
Over the years, HTC has launched a slew of midrange and high-end handsets, but it never quite managed to get back to the top. In a new bid to adjust its market strategy, HTC decided to shift its focus to more powerful and expensive smartphones rather than low-end ones.
With this in mind, the company announced earlier this week that it wants to streamline its smartphone portfolio this week to drop entry-level phones in favor of midrange and high-end handsets. That news followed HTC's Seven Days of Sappiness promotion that offered notable discounts on select smartphones for Valentine's Day.
HTC Postpaid Smartphones Vanishing From Carrier Websites
Meanwhile, Wave7 Research notes that T-Mobile and AT&T are no longer selling HTC postpaid smartphones on their websites.
T-Mobile apparently removed the HTC Desire 530 from its website a couple of weeks ago and it's not the only carrier adjusting its lineup.
"As noted in January, with the removal of the $139.99 Desire from T-Mobile's website weeks ago, there are no HTC phones on the websites of AT&T or T-Mobile," Wave7 said in a note to subscribers, as cited by Fierce Wireless. "T-Mobile reps sometimes mention the $139.99 Desire as a prepaid option. On paper, Verizon is selling two HTC devices, but at many stores checked, there was no in-store inventory of either device."
Even more worrisome, T-Mobile also dropped the HTC 10, which launched in 2016 as HTC's powerful new flagship.
HTC Smartphone Woes
Phone Arena further points out that HTC's problems are even bigger. According to the publication, Sprint - the exclusive HTC Bolt carrier in the United States - is facing poor HTC sales, which make up only 2 percent of its gross revenue.
It remains to be seen whether HTC's fortunes will turn around with this new strategy to focus on midrange and high-end devices, but for now the online inventory of HTC phones at carriers paints a gloomy picture. HTC is still set to release two powerful handsets next month - the HTC U Ultra and the HTC U Play - and the company is also expected to introduce a sleek new HTC 11 soon.
That said, carriers may be simply clearing existing inventory of older HTC devices to make room for the new generation of smartphones set to hit the scene this year, albeit it does seem odd that T-Mobile removed even the HTC 10.
Neither HTC nor the carriers have offered any statements as to why HTC handsets seem to be vanishing from online inventory, but the move is not that surprising either, considering that HTC smartphones haven't been performing very well in recent times.
As always, we'll keep you up to date as soon as we have more information, so stay tuned.
