The writing had been on the wall for a long time. After three years of declining sales, HTC yesterday got a new CEO but it did not have to go very far to find that person. HTC Chairwoman and company co-founder Cher Wang is replacing Peter Chou as HTC CEO.
“We are seeing rapid changes in the industry, with the smartphone as our personal hub connecting us to a growing world of smart devices. We pioneered the smartphone industry; now we are applying that thinking to realize the potential of a new generation of connected products and services. The overwhelming response that our virtual reality product, HTC Vive, received earlier this month underlines the importance of these new connected technologies for our future,” said Cher Wang, chairman and CEO, HTC.
“As an entrepreneur at heart, I am excited to see so many new opportunities, and I am honoured to accept this opportunity to help shape the next stage of HTC’s development.”
Wang co-founded HTC in 1997. She took on some of Chou’s CEO responsibilities in 2013 in what was described at the time as a temporary move.
Chou will “transition to a strategic new role leading future product innovation” as the Head of the company’s Future Development Lab, a new group about which little is known at this point. It does suggest that we could see more non-smartphone devices like the HTC Re and HTC Grip from HTC in the future.
Source : Bloomberg