Data compiled by Strategy Analytics reveals that HTC is continuing to lose its ground in the LTE segment of the smartphone market. Its market share has considerably dropped over the last couple of years, the company now stands behind Samsung, Apple, Sony and LG in this particular segment of the smartphone market. Digitimes claims in a new report that industry sources believe chances are slim for HTC to regain the market share it has gradually lost over the years.
HTC once had a pretty strong position in this segment. In the first quarter of 2011, HTC was the top LTE smartphone vendor with 80 percent market share. As per the latest data compiled by Strategy Analytics, Samsung is now the top LTE smartphone vendor with 47 percent share. Apple trails in second with 23.5 percent of the market, followed by Sony with 6.5 percent and LG with 4 percent. Then comes HTC, whose smartphones now account for 3 percent of the entire LTE segment. Sources predict that competition in this segment is going to get tough over the coming months. They believe that vendors based in China, such as ZTE, Coolpad, Huawei etc are likely to flood the markets with cheap LTE smartphones using chipset solutions from Qualcomm as well as Marvell Technology and HiSilicon Technologies.