HTC, one of the first names associated with Android hardware, this afternoon appointed a new CEO in Yves Maitre.
Maitre, formerly a longstanding senior executive with Orange, has worked with HTC for a number of years and was involved in the rollout of some of the first Android devices in Europe. He also brings experience in supply chain and product management to the position.
The company’s been fairly quiet in 2019 on the phone front after a few years of troubled performance. Maitre is clear on where he sees the company’s future:
I am incredibly energized to grow the future of both 5G and XR alongside HTC employees, customers and investors.
For the last four years HTC’s CEO position had been held by Cher Wang, co-founder of the company, who will return to the chairperson position. Of her successor, Wang said “I firmly believe Yves is the right leader to continue to lead HTC to its full potential.”
HTC’s current premier offering in the mobile space is the 5G Hub, an Android-powered mobile broadband device running on Telstra’s 4G and 5G networks. It’s a savvy choice for the company, avoiding going head-to-head with the likes of Samsung and Huawei introducing 5G smartphones. The company is rumoured to introduce such a device in Q1 2020.
The company is becoming better known for its Vive VR/AR (and now “XR”, or “extended reality”) products in the gaming space, where it’s found quite some success.
The latest consumer handset, Vive Cosmos, went up for pre-order last week (we also got to go hands-on with it).
Maitre certainly has his work cut out for him. We’ll be watching with a keen eye to see where he takes HTC.