Back in October last year, Bloomberg reported that HTC is working on a smartwatch with a camera that the company plans on releasing sometime in the second half of 2014.
Now, HTC Chairwoman — Cher Wang — has confirmed to Bloomberg that the company is planning on releasing its first wearable device by the holiday shopping season this year.
“Many years ago we started looking at smartwatches and wearables, but we believe that we really have to solve the battery problems and the LCD light problems,” she said in the interview. “These are customer-centric problems.”
HTC’s arch rival, Samsung, is already rumored to unveil the second generation of its smartwatch — the Galaxy Gear — at its Unpacked 5 event in MWC at the end of the month.
Cher also stated that the company is feeling very positive about 2014 compared to 2013 and will focus on marketing this year with renewed energy.
Even though HTC released the critically acclaimed One last year, the handset failed to set the sales chart on fire and help HTC reclaim its lost market share. Hopefully, with an excellent successor to the last-gen One and some decent marketing campaign, HTC would be able to stage a turnaround this year.