Dumb Analyst of the Day: Roxy Wong

Jonathan Standing and Clare Jim, reporting for Reuters on HTC’s woes:

But investors are concerned that HTC, one of few Taiwanese firms with a global brand, is not changing radically enough.

“Its industrial design hasn’t changed for almost two years. Unless it launches a really different phone, it’s hard to sell the product at a premium price,” said Roxy Wong, analyst at Mirae Asset Management in Hong Kong.

Meanwhile, here in the real world, the two best-selling smartphones in September 2011 were the iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS — phones that debuted in June 2010 and June 2009, respectively. Keep in mind that the 3GS features an industrial design that’s almost completely unchanged since the iPhone 3G in June 2008, and that Apple is taking in a majority share of the industry’s profits. Oh, and Apple’s newest best-selling phone, the 4S? It shares the industrial design of the 17-month-old iPhone 4.

The problem with HTC is not that the industrial design of their phones isn’t new enough. It’s that their phones aren’t good enough. What Apple shows is that if a phone is actually great, it will sell for years.

★ Monday, 28 November 2011