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And I don't see how making phones for someone else is a bad thing. It shows you know what you are doing.

https://www.google.com/search?q=HTC+Market+value&oq=HTC+Mark...

HTC has lost 50% of its market value over the past year. It is 1/3 of what it was worth in mid-2013. If you feel like counting the stock market bubble, HTC is work a bit under 7% of what it was worth in 2007.

The money they are making now falls short of previous expectations. It falls short by a hell of a lot. Whatever it is they're doing now, it ain't what they hoped to be be doing. Meanwhile their rivals are profitable and valuable.

What else do you call that but losing?

The great profit margins tend to be in branding though, not OEM work. This is a huge hurdle Taiwan's industries in general have to overcome (HTC and Foxconn are Taiwanese), and probably part of the reason Foxconn bought Sharp.

Not that it cannot be done. Acer is a prime example of an OEM turning into a full blown brand name. HTC seems to be focusing on too many thing and for the last ten years have been feeling like they were missing something to match the line up of other phone manufacturers.

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