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 CMO Ben Ho has just resigned, making it a rather short stunt 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). Ho will remain at HTC until end of this year.
Culpan also reported that Fred Liu, the President of Engineering and Operations, has dropped day-to-day operations to pick up a strategic advisory role, as he prepares for retirement after almost 16 years of service. According to Taiwanese magazine Global Views , back then it took HTC founder HT Cho over a year to convince Liu to leave Digital Equipment Corporation -- the former employer of Cho and CEO Peter Chou -- and join his then new smartphone OEM.
Neither resignations should affect HTC's roadmap in the very near future. We understand that the Taiwanese company's preparing to launch its first smart wearables in the coming months -- maybe to coincide with IFA in September. Regardless, it shouldn't take long before these voids are filled.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, HTC
Source: Bloomberg
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