A lot depends on the HTC 10 for the Taiwanese smartphone maker, and while it really is an impressive handset, it looks like it is off to a disappointing start in China. According to Focus Taiwan, 11 days into its pre-order period, only 251 units of the 10 have been pre-ordered by potential customers through e-commerce websites TMall and Jingdon Mall.

The lack of consumer interest in the HTC 10 in China is pretty clear: while the 10 comes with a Snapdragon 820 chipset in the United States and the rest of the world, the Chinese variant features a less powerful Snapdragon 652 chipset. A slower processor not only affects the performance of the handset, but also negatively affects its battery life and camera performance. The handset also comes with only 3GB of RAM, while the international HTC 10 features 4GB.

HTC does sell the 10 for a slightly lower price in China — 3,799 yuan (NT$ 19,000) — which is lower than the handset’s NT$24,900 price tag in Taiwan. However, the lower price of the handset and the slower chipset has not really gone down well with Chinese consumers, which is clearly evident from the low pre-order numbers of the handset.

HTC had initially planned on launching the same lower-end variant of the HTC 10, dubbed the HTC 10 Lifestyle, in India but a lot of criticism from Indian consumers led to the company backtracking on its decision.

The HTC 10 will be up for pre-order in China until May 8, and will go on sale the very next day. With such a low consumer interest in the market surrounding the handset, it is likely that HTC will reduce the price of the handset even further.

On a positive note, the report claims that HTC has said that the sales of the 10 in Taiwan have been better than expected.

The HTC 10 is only available in a handful of markets right now, so it is tough to say whether consumers are interested in it or not. A month or two down the line though, it will be clear if the 10 will be able to save HTC or not.