You know that thing when a rumor starts and it gets repeated so often that it practically becomes true? Earlier this year there was just such a rumor, which said that HTC’s CEO, Peter Chou, would leave the company if the One turned out to be a flop.

According to a recent interview in The Wall Street Journal, turns out that’s complete hogwash. The quote couldn’t be more clear: “There are a lot of rumors that say I would quit, but I never said that.”

What else did Chou tell the WSJ? Not much actually. The piece is just a lump of quotes from analysts who think they know what went wrong with the company who, for all intents and purposes, gave birth to Android. They say things like poor time to market, poor brand building, too many models which confuse consumers, and so on and so forth.

Can HTC turn things around? Boy, that’s a hard one. Everyone loves the One, but a lot of people also hate Sense. That and HTC really does have no brand, which is a shame because if they spend more money on marketing, then they’re going to have to trim the fat somewhere else … and that might mean making less competent devices.

Let’s also not forget that HTC’s main market is being taken over by local players who don’t care about fat margins. Companies like Huawei, ZTE, Coolpad, Lenovo, they’re dominating.