Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC has announced that CEO Peter Chou is stepping down from the top post. Chou will be replaced by current HTC chairperson Cher Wang.
Chou is not leaving HTC. Instead, he has been assigned to head the firm's new Future Development Lab. Little is known about the new department, but HTC says in a statement that Chou will be "instrumental in identifying future growth opportunities for the company." Possibly, it could mean that Chou will be heading a division that develops new products such as the HTC Re Vive virtual reality headset and the unique Re Camera action cam.
Meanwhile, Wang will be taking over the reins as HTC transitions into a branded smartphone maker into a firm with a full lineup of smart devices. Over the last two years, HTC says Wang has gained adequate experience in running various aspects of the business and that HTC's board of directors has decided that it was time to formalize the firm's progression into "the next stage of development."
"We are seeing rapid changes in the industry, with the smartphone as our personal hub connecting us to a growing world of smart devices," says Wang in a statement. "We pioneered the smartphone industry; now we are applying that thinking to realize the potential of a new generation of connected products and services. The overwhelming response that our virtual reality product, HTC Vive, received earlier this month underlines the importance of these new technologies for our future."
The executive shakeup at HTC comes at a time when the firm is trying to convert all the critical acclaim it has been receiving for its line of impressive HTC One smartphones into sales. Despite the positive press the newly unveiled One M9 and the Vive headset HTC has been getting, the firm posted a meager $14.7 million in profits for the last quarter of 2014. HTC also saw its first quarter-on-quarter sales growth since the third quarter of 2011, but that is clearly not enough for Chou to keep his post.
Back in 2013, sources cited by The Verge said Chou, who was at that time on his tenth year as CEO of HTC, was the firm's biggest problem. Although the insiders said Chou was a quick decision-maker and a perfectionist's attention to detail, it was exactly its chief's perfectionism that became HTC's weakness.
"It used to be a strength, and now is becoming a weak point as they don't have a clear direction going forward," one of the sources said.
