HTC is introducing two new top-tier roles in a wider executive reorganisation, as the Taiwanese handset maker expects to reap healthy revenue in the next few months.
Both of the newcomers are poached from Sony (NYSE: SNE) Ericsson (NSDQ: ERIC) and are part of a product-centric shuffle…
— Ron Louks (new), chief strategy officer: Comes from being Sony Ericsson CTO. “Responsible for driving new strategic initiatives, technology incubation and will work closely with HTC’s engineering and operation departments”.
— Kouji Kodera (new), chief product officer: Previously Sony Ericsson’s product head, he will lead “global product portfolio planning and management”.
— David Chen, chief engineering officer: A 13-year HTC veteran, promoted from product development VP to “continue to drive HTC’s product development and engineering”.
— Jason Mackenzie, HTC North America and Latin America president: Promoted from VP after leading HTC’s regional emergence since 2005.
— Florian Seiche, HTC Europe, Middle East and Africa president: Promoted from VP after leading EMEA since 2005.
— Senior executive VP Jason Juang is leaving.
HTC’s strategy of beginning to sell and market own-brand smartphones, whilst continuing to make phones that are re-badged by carriers, is clearly working, with phones like HTC Wildfire, HTC Desire and the HTC-made Droid Incredible proving attractive, even if the Nexus One has languished. What’s more, HTC has proved to be the flag-bearing Android handset maker whilst remaining the leading shipper of phones carrying Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) Windows operating systems.
The firm expects (via Dow Jones) Q3 smartphone sales, due for reporting in September, to more than double from a year ago, leading revenue to double up to a record $70 billion in new Taiwanese dollars ($2.19 billion).
The company says the exec moves are “preparation for future growth” – but they can also be seen as reward to those who have got it where it stands today.