The struggling smartphone maker is no longer in the cool-kids club in the eyes of component suppliers, which means consumers have to wait to join the party.
Your invite to join the HTC One party has been rescheduled.
(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)
This morning we learned a little more about why the HTC One, the last (or at least the latest) great hope for a onetime ascendant titan of the smartphone world, has been delayed. Put simply, HTC has been seriously dissed by its own suppliers.
An unnamed HTC executive told The Wall Street Journal that availability of its pretty new flagship phone has been pushed back because of component shortages:
The company has a problem managing its component suppliers as it has changed its order forecasts drastically and frequently following last year's unexpected slump in shipments.... HTC has had difficulty in securing adequate camera components as it is no longer a tier-one customer.
Reading between the lines of the corporate-speak reveals a pretty shocking admission that HTC is not in the cool-kids club anymore, at least in the eyes of the industrial supply chain that makes the magic happen.
HTC and its CEO, Peter Chou, basically sent out invitations to all us consumers to attend its killer party at a hot new club, and then when they led us up to the velvet rope, HTC's name wasn't on the list. In this metaphor, the camera component suppliers are playing the role of the bouncer telling us to come back on a less crowded night.
HTC is of course reassuring consumers that it will still get us into the grand soiree that is HTC One ownership, but we now might have to wait until the end of March or April.
HTC better hurry though, as a rival clique led by Samsung and J.K. Shin is also planning a big bash, and their names will definitely be on the list.
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