Despite HTC’s earnest efforts, its smartphone business has failed to take off over the last few years. After selling off a part of its smartphone business to Google, HTC has now announced that it will be laying off 1,500 people from its manufacturing unit in Taiwan.
A 1,500 job cut translates into almost a quarter of the 6,450 people that HTC employs all over the world. The company is making this move to better manage its resources as its smartphone sales continue to fall and it struggles to turn a profit. HTC expects to complete the layoff by the end of September. The move will also help the company to bring its VR and smartphone business under a common leadership for better management. Last year, HTC had sold its most of its smartphone business and around 2,000 of its engineers to Google for $1.1 billion. With the majority of HTC’s engineers now working at Google, doubts were raised over the future of HTC’s smartphone business. While the company did release a flagship smartphone this year, the U12+, it is looking increasingly likely that the company won’t be around for another year to release another flagship handset.
