Smartphone maker HTC Corp’s (宏達電) recent promotional campaign failed to boost its brand awareness in the US and its market share in the country fell from July to October.
In August, HTC hired actor Robert Downey Jr, the star of the Iron Man and Sherlock Holmes film series, to be the spokesperson for an advertising campaign aimed at restoring luster to the struggling company’s brand.
The campaign started with an ad on YouTube on Aug. 15 and was followed by a series of TV commercials and ads before movies.
However, a survey issued by market research firm comScore said that HTC’s market share in the US had fallen to 6.7 percent at the end of October from 8 percent in July.
FOURTH PLACE
HTC ranked fourth among major smartphone brands in the US, behind Apple Inc’s 40.6 percent, Samsung Electronics Co’s 25.4 percent and Motorola’s 7 percent.
Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc, now a Google Inc subsidiary, replaced HTC as the third-largest smartphone vendor in the US in October by gaining 0.1 percent in market share during the period.
LG Electronics Co came in fifth with a 6.6 percent market share.
LARGE GAINS
Among the five top brands in the US, Samsung registered the highest growth in market share from July to October, with a gain of 1.3 percent. Apple’s share rose 0.2 percent, the survey showed.
Analysts said the HTC One Max model launched in October in the US did not help boost the company’s market share.
Market research firm Trend Force said last week that HTC shipped about 1.6 million smartphones in both October and last month, and it estimated fourth-quarter shipments of 5.2 million units, down 40 percent from last year.
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