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It’s been said before, but it looks like 2014 is shaping up as the year of the wearable device.
(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)
Now HTC has told Bloomberg that it will be working on wearable tech — although it was curiously reluctant to mention any specifics.
In the interview, HTC Chairwoman Cher Wang said that the company plans to begin selling a wearable device by year’s end.
“Many years ago we started looking at smartwatches and wearables, but we believe that we really have to solve the battery problems and the LCD light problems,” Wang said in an interview Tuesday. “These are customer-centric problems.”
Other than that, no information on the nature of the wearable device was forthcoming.
Last October, HTC CEO Peter Chou told the Financial Times that, while wearable was a “critical segment” he wasn’t sure that the time was right for the company to enter the market. Apparently that time is now.
HTC has suffered in the smartphone market under pressure from its rivals. Last month it posted a net income of NT$310 million (AUD$11 million) for the fourth quarter, down year-on-year from NT$1.01 billion (AUD$37 million).
With rumours that the company will be refreshing the flagship HTC One smartphone in the coming months, perhaps we will see more information about HTC’s wearable plans around the same time.
