It’s only been about a month since the launch of the HTC One, but an anonymous HTC executive told the Wall Street Journal that it’s already approaching the 5 million sold mark.
Mentioning the One’s trouble with shortages, the unidentified party told the journal, “orders are pretty good so far and are still more than what we can supply.” He cited sub-optimum availability of the device’s various components as the principle reason for the One’s shortages.
Of course, this faceless, nameless, sourceless HTC executive must know that HTC is in a good bit of danger. Demand for HTC’s product line has fallen sharply in recent years, and Samsung’s Galaxy S4 made it to 10 million units sold less than a month after it launched. And of course, there’s always Apple, an ever-present competitor, selling millions of units from its product line every month. HTC’s mystery man told the WSJ that it was still too early to know if the HTC One was “doing really well or not.”
The HTC One stands as one of the highest rated mobile devices on the market, and its seemingly successful launch definitely speaks to the company’s ability to market the product. But component shortages are still holding it back from what could be an even stronger launch window. A truly dynamic performance boost over the next couple of months would go a long way to ignite interest in whatever HTC’s got waiting for us down the line.
