HTC's CEO willing to stake his life (at least as head of the company)?

A piece of news which really caught my attention today was the announcement (at least in the boardroom) that HTC's long serving CEO and co-founder, Peter Chou would step down if his brainchild, the One wasn't to live up to the hype.

And what a hype this news has certainly generated. Any time a key figure is ready to take his or her leave because they feel they're not right for the job, you know they have a serious issue on their hands. HTC's sales have failed to turn substantial profit for a couple of years now, and so often do we forget that apart from hurting the company, that key individuals within its walls begin to question themselves and the way they're running the company.

There's no denying HTC have been vigilant with news and media surrounding the Galaxy S4, and they've even gone so far as to get involved with the public during Samsung's launch even in Times Square, and tried to trend the hashtag #thenextbigflop on the very same night.

HTC have come out with fists swinging at who they now perceive to be their main rival, and whilst this may be true as far as Android OEMs are concerned, where are the concentrated digs at the greater problem? HTC have been making sure to amp up their One on social media, demonstrating the level of care, precision and time that goes into crafting the unibody shell, but recent reports of delays due to just that, problems with components shipping from suppliers, have planted a seed of doubt in many. There's also been issue regarding the UltraPixel camera components, and when you take on board all 220 minutes of love poured into each device, one starts to get a sense of which device may in fact, be #thenextbigflop.

The 'Metal-morphosis' - Source: droidlife

Things are not looking good at the moment for the Taiwanese manufacturer, and the most ironic part of all this happens to lie in HTC's own social media feeds - where cockiness reigns and they gloat endlessly about the craftsmanship of the One. Just so readers know, I'm not on Samsung's side in all this, and it's partially why I haven't bothered to discuss the Galaxy S4 since it's launch - the thought of it quite frankly irates me, and it'll probably take a couple of weeks before I'm finally willing to talk about it.

I noted in a previous post just after the One's launch that I felt the amount of time that goes into each device could ultimately be HTC's undoing if the device became popular. I'm now starting to see what may only be the start of a long line of troubles for HTC, if they can't rectify the problem in a timely manner. The last thing HTC need is a whole lot of angry customers who not only have to wait to be told the materials are being received, but also that they have to wait weeks or perhaps months before they can accommodate all the orders before theirs, pouring more than 220 minutes of 'love' into each device.

So much is running on the success of their new flagship. HTC have bet on black, all we can do now is wait and see whether they're in the clear, or have landed red in the danger-zone, and the loss of one of their visionaries results.