HTC was once a major player in the smartphone market, but it has since lost its position due to a combination of factors. Some of the reasons for HTCs decline include:

• Strange business decisions: HTC started to lose its market position in the middle of the last decade, making strange business decisions such as launching dozens of cheaper devices with various additions to the name of its bestseller Desire.

• Competition from other brands: Samsungs S series began to erode HTCs flagship delivery as it simply offered more logical solutions for roughly the same amount of money.

• Lack of innovation: HTC refused to innovate, releasing models from year to year that were mostly the same. They ignored suggestions and criticisms from their fans.

• Too many smartphones: HTC released so many smartphones that it was hard for consumers to keep up. Sometimes, having a few well-built smartphones is better than saturating the market.

Despite these challenges, HTC has not entirely retreated from the smartphone market. In 2018, Google acquired around 2000 of HTCs employees that worked on design and research to work on the Google Pixel smartphone, allowing HTC to focus more on developing virtual reality headsets. In 2022, HTC re-entered the smartphone market with the launch of its latest smartphone, the HTC Desire 22 Pro, which has a built-in VIVERSE metaverse platform and VIVE Wallet with personal virtual assets. HTC is also planning to launch a new high-end smartphone in April 2023, which could challenge Apples future plans.