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HTC will launch a 5G smartphone in 2020, but does anyone still care?
July 29, 2025
5Gconnectivity is expected to grow massively in 2020, as most flagship phones will offer the feature as well as some mid-range devices with theright chipset.
We’ve seen a range of companies announce plans to offer 5G in 2020, and HTChas joined the party in announcing its plans for a5G phone.
Company president Yves Maitre announced the news in an interview withUDN(h/t:XDA), but the sad truth is that this will likely do little to change the firm’s precarious situation.
That ship sailed a long time ago
HTC’s phones have seen abysmal sales in the last few years and it recorded its sixth straight quarterly loss inQ3 2019. In other words, people simply aren’t buying HTC’s phones and haven’t been doing so for a couple of years.
The firm’s current situation is in large part due to several duds, dating back to the underwhelmingHTC One M9, which yieldedawful financial results. We then saw the greatHTC 10in 2016, but thisreportedlyfell far short of sales expectations. 2017’sHTC U11 seriesbucked the trend and apparentlyoutsold the HTC10 and One M9, but the firm followed up with another critical and commercial flop in theHTC U12 Plus.
The company didn’t even release a proper flagship phone in 2019, opting to focus on theWildfirebudget phones and its blockchain-focused Exodus phone. Oddly enough, the latter series seems to havemet or exceeded HTC’s expectations, perhaps showing that there is a niche aside from flagships (albeit a tiny one).
Maitrepreviously statedthat HTCintends to return to the premium flagship space, acknowledging that the firm didn’t innovate in recent years. This premium flagship will likely be the 5G phone the CEO is talking about, but the days of the HTCOne M8 and even the HTCU11 are long behind it. The firm is facing a distinctly different smartphone landscape in 2020.
This is in large part due to the rise of Chinese brands such asHuawei,OnePlus,Realme,Vivo,Oppo, andXiaomi. These brands have managed to usurp the former Android heavyweight at a variety of price points. More importantly, they’ve also managed to expand to Europe, the Middle East, other countries in Asia, and even North America in the case of OnePlus. Meanwhile, HTChas retreated from several countries in the last few years.
All these rival companies have released5G smartphonesalready and are gearing up for more 5G devices. The likes ofMotorola,Asus,LG, and evenSonyare also there to pick up the scraps, leaving HTCwith virtually nothing ahead of its first 5G phone.
That’s not to say HTCcouldn’t surprise us with a great 5G flagship smartphone worth buying, but between consumer apathy, competition, andthe loss of numerous employeesto Google, the firm has a gargantuan task ahead of it. We hope the company succeeds though. Its flagship phones delivered interesting designs, great camera quality, and someinnovative features. Maybe anHTC One M7 5G 2020 Edition(please don’t call it that) would be just the ticket?
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