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HTC senior execs resign ahead of smart wearable launch
HTC may be back on its road to recovery thanks to its One (M8) flagship phone, but it's now facing yet another managerial change. According to Bloomberg's Tim Culpan, the phone maker's marketing chief Ben Ho has just resigned, making it a rather short stint since he joined a little over a year and a half ago. Our own sources implied that this had been expected for a while, and that the $1 billion "Here's To Change" marketing campaign was the main culprit, as it failed to get its money's worth in return (despite chairwoman Cher Wang being a big fan of the hipster trolls featured in the ads). While Ho has already been relieved of CMO duties, he will remain at HTC until end of this year.
CE-Oh no he didn't!: HTC's CMO Ben Ho says the Galaxy S 4 is just 'more of the same'
First it was Apple, then LG, and now we have HTC also trolling Samsung's Galaxy S 4 launch in New York. Before the doors opened at Radio City Music Hall, the Taiwanese company kindly gave out hot cocoa and snacks while showing off the One to folks lined up in the cold outside, as well as to the public in Times Square (see video after the break). This was followed by HTC's complementary entertainment during Samsung's event with a series of surprisingly relentless tweets -- one of which even bore the hash tag "#theNextBigFlop" to mock Samsung's "The Next Big Thing" slogan. Ouch. To wrap up the day, HTC's fresh CMO Ben Ho got in touch (by way of a PR agency) to say that the again-plastic Galaxy S 4 is just "more of the same," and that his company's "all-aluminum unibody HTC One" with "original cutting-edge technology, mouth-watering design and a premium feel" is really what people are after. Here's his full statement: "With a continuation of a plastic body, and a larger screen being the most obvious physical change, Samsung's new Galaxy pales in comparison to the all-aluminum unibody HTC One. "This is more of the same. HTC remains the best option for those people looking for the best technology wrapped in premium design. Our customers want something different from the mainstream, who appear to be the target for the Galaxy. "Our customers want original cutting-edge technology, mouth-watering design and a premium feel from their mobiles, which is why we created the HTC One." Looks like "quietly brilliant" is no more for HTC then? Update: Ben Ho got back to us with another nugget, this time taking a quick jab at the software features on Samsung's latest flagship device. It's short and sweet (and also spicy): "Looking at the software features of the S4, we think Samsung spent more on marketing than innovation."
