HTC America lays off 20 percent of workforce amidst reorganization

HTC has laid off 20 percent of their workforce in the US as part of an effort to streamline and optimize their organization and improve efficiencies following years of what they call aggressive growth. The division was home to around 150 employees and contractors which means roughly 30 of them are now among the unemployed.

The Verge obtained a letter from Jason Mackenzie, president of HTC America, where he noted the day was the most difficult during his career at HTC but the stark reality is that their business results aren’t where they want them to be. Mackenzie did promise to treat outgoing employees with the respect they deserve and provide them with resources to help bridge the gap as they hunt down a new job.

HTC has had a pretty tough go of it lately but they aren’t giving up. Their flagship HTC One smartphone is one of the best on the market and a new ad campaign featuring Robert Downey Jr. has been well-received thus far. The problem, according to insiders, has to do with CEO Peter Chou. These insiders claim Chou’s history of making quick decisions was once a strength for the company but is now becoming a weak point as there is no clear direction when looking to the future.

An official statement from HTC said the layoffs were a necessary step to achieve their long-term goals as a business and return maximum value to shareholders. Realigning human resources will let them advance into a new stage of growth and innovation.

HTC faces ban in Germany over alleged patent infringement

HTC could suffer a very ill timed sales ban in Germany, after it withdrew its appeal to a patent claim over 3G/UMTS standards won by German firm IPCom in February 2009 in a Mannheim court. HTC said the appeal was redundant as a German court has already questioned the validity of the aforementioned patent, but IPCom sees this as an admission of defeat and intends to enforce an injunction in the shortest possible time.

"Since HTC has never to come up with an offer that adequately reflects the value of these patents, IPCom has been left with no choice -- we will use the right awarded by the courts, likely resulting in HTC devices disappearing from shops during the crucial Christmas season," IPCom managing director Bernhard Frohwitter said in a statement.

A verdict on HTC's appeal was due to be decided this week.

Although the Taiwanese handset maker claims IPCom's patents are invalid, patent expert and blogger Florian Mueller points out that if that were the motivation behind the withdrawal then it should have happened earlier. Instead, he claims, HTC is buying time to avoid a decision on two related patents that IPCom dropped into the suit after the original judgment had come out. These additional patents would have been at issue at this week's trial, but now IPCom will have to go back to a first-instance court if it wants to enforce them.

IPCom can still enforce the original patent, however, which is valid until 2020. According to Mueller, chances are not looking good for HTC and it may have to pay up soon if it doesn't want to leave the German market.

IPCom acquired Bosch's mobile telephony patent portfolio in 2007. It develops no products and carries out no research into mobile technologies, but it is determined to get a good return on the money it paid for the patents and legal fees. Besides HTC, the patent holding firm is targeting Nokia in the UK and elsewhere, as well as Germany's two leading carriers T-Mobile and Vodafone.

HTC re-evaluates S3 Graphics deal in light of patent defeat

Taiwanese phone manufacturer HTC is said to be re-evaluating whether to proceed with the intended $300 million purchase of S3 Graphics after the company suffered a defeat in its ITC patent dispute against Apple earlier this week.

Investors were concerned initially about the S3 acquisition because HTC's chairperson, Cher Wang, owned a stake in the business. Citigroup also questioned the deal, saying HTC could have just licensed the patents it needed to gain some leverage over Apple. The financial conglomerate later downgraded HTC's stock investment rating and prompted a drop in the company's stock value.

"HTC had decided to acquire S3 Graphics based on the strong belief that evidences of patent infringement from Apple were clear and ITC ruled in its initial determination that Apple had infringed two patents from S3. In light of recent development, HTC will work closely in good faith with VIA Technologies and WTI Investment International to conduct holistic re-evaluation of the S3 Graphics acquisition," they said in a statement, which did little to hide the Taiwanese firm's disappointment.

HTC went on to say they had invested considerable time and effort in preparing for the complicated legal proceedings, which included a "complete legal investigation and comprehensive report on patent and price evaluations." Given that they lost, it is not surprising they wish to re-value the company accordingly.

In a world of ever-increasing patent "wars" it is understandable why they would be interested in the acquisition of S3 Graphics, and thus the additional protection of its patents to boost its intellectual property portfolio and better protect itself against any possible future patent lawsuits. 

Adding to its woes, the phone manufacturer has announced it expects to ship fewer handsets in the fourth quarter, with revised figures now forecasting sales to be the same as its fourth quarter last year. Global economy and market competition were cited as the main reasons for slower than expected sales.

HTC recently hit the news when information and pictures of its upcoming Zeta handset were revealed, with the rumoured specifications said to include a Qualcomm Snapdragon APQ8064 2.5GHz quad-core processor.

HTC to offer users 5GB of free storage via Dropbox

Smartphone maker HTC has confirmed that they will be offering 5GB of free storage through Dropbox to anyone that buys a new HTC handset. All future HTC phones running Android will come with a Dropbox application pre-loaded, although it isn’t clear yet if current HTC users will get the same deal.

Dropbox currently offers any user up to 2GB of storage for free but the new deal with HTC provides its users with 3GB of additional space. Likely not by coincidence, this is the same amount of space that Apple offers on iCloud for iOS 5 users.

The deal is exclusive to Android users only, however. HTC users with a Windows Phone can use Microsoft’s SkyDrive which provides 25GB of storage in the cloud for free.

HTC first announced the partnership on their Facebook page to mixed reactions from users. Some feel that 5GB is an adequate amount of space while others believe it’s too little, too late. If you fall into the latter category, Dropbox also offers paid services that provide more storage. 50GB of storage is $9.99 per month, 100GB will set you back $19.99 monthly and a 350GB package with five licenses sells for $795 annually.

HTC’s announcement was pretty vague as we don’t know if current HTC users will have access to the service. Mobilediasays that Dropbox isn’t retroactive, meaning people with older HTC phones won’t be able to use the service. Pocket-lint says users of newer handsets running Sense 3.5 will be able to use Dropbox, which should be launching sometime this month.

HTC shows off Flyer tablet in 6-minute video

HTC is trying to build a bit of hype around its upcoming tablet. As such, the company has released a video on its official YouTube channel. The video shows off some of the tablet's unique features, including HTC Sense, HTC Scribe, as well as its OnLive gaming system.

Here's the video's description: "Introducing the HTC Flyer -- the big screen that's small enough to hold in your hand. The premium unibody construction looks great and feels solid in your hand, while still keeping the weight to less than a paperback book. Plus, it does most things your PC can -- and more!"

The video would suggest that the tablet is geared at college students and business people, given its advanced note-taking capabilities and the fact that it comes with a stylus. The company clearly believes this little bit will help it differentiate its product from the many tablets coming out this year.

HTC officially unveiled the 7-inch device at Mobile World Congress 2011 last month. The HTC Flyer touts a 1.5GHz single-core CPU, 1GB of RAM, 32GB of flash storage, an aluminum unibody construction, and a 1024x600 resolution. Other features include a 5MP camera on the back, 1.3MP front-facing camera for video conferencing, HSPA+ support, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi.

It's not clear if the device will be powered by Android 2.3 (codenamed Gingerbread) or Android 2.4. We do know, however, that it won't arrive with Android 3.0 (codenamed Honeycomb), which is specifically designed for tablets, but that users will be able to upgrade to it when it becomes available. HTC is more concerned with getting its tablet on the