It could be said that HTC has been struggling as a mobile device manufacturer for a while. It appears that its next upcoming flagship is not much more than a refresh of its predecessor. The Taiwanese OEM has also taken measures such as releasing a phone in order to crack a potential new audience.
There is more evidence that HTC’s is struggling as many have observed that the company has withdrawn a number of its apps from the Google Play Store.
Users of HTC phones may recognize them as apps that come pre-installed on their devices. They include HTC People, HTC Service—Video Player, HTC Calendar, HTC Mail, HTC Speak, HTC Car and HTC Ice View. HTC Dot View, an app that controls the OEM’s custom-made flip-cases of the same name, is also on this list. Most strikingly, HTC Sense Home, the company’s proprietary Android launcher, is the latest of these now-inactive app.
HTC has shown some small signs of life this week by announcing its release schedule for the overdue updates to Android 9 Pie. The HTC U11 will be updated first, around the end of May, to be followed by the U12 Plus in June, and the U11 Plus starting at the end of June. Owners of other HTC phones are likely out of luck. The newly announced Android 10 Q from Google isn’t likely to show up on any HTC phones.
