Is Taiwanese phonemaker HTC following the footsteps of the once-giant Canadian tech firm BlackBerry?

Reports said that the fortunes of the company that impressed the tech world with its HTC One smartphone is on a downhill, having lost 70 per cent of its market share and 90 per cent of its market capitalisation since its glory days in 2011.

YouTube/Michael de Maal-Montgomery

To avert a further decline, HTC co-founder and Chairwoman Cher Wang has taken over a significant number of tasks performed by Chief Executive Officer Peter Chou.

Since she added sales, marketing, logistics and customer service to her scope, Ms Wang said she increased the amount of time she spends on HTC to six from two days a week. Mr Chou, in turn, will focus on products and innovation.

Ms Wang's business acumen is the result of her family being engaged in business and technology. Her father is the founder of Formosa Plastic Group, a plastics and petrochemicals conglomerate. Her sister helped establish First International Computer, a motherboard maker and her husband, Wenchi Chain, is CEO of VIA Technologies, a computer chip developer.

HTC used to concentrate on laptop production but decided to shift to smartphones when competition became too tight in the PC market. However, HTC recently discovered that rivalry is now as intense in the cellphone market.

Like BlackBerry which has interested buyers, there are speculations that other technology firms such as Lenovo - which is also considering a buyout of the former Research in Motion - and Huawei, ZTE, Amazon and Microsoft are interested in purchasing the troubled Taiwanese phone makers whose key executives have jumped shipped for safer and more stable companies.

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