March has been a very good month for HTC’s stock price. Most everyone knows that HTC stock took a nose dive last year as sales of its flagship phones decreased dramatically. HTC monthly revenue numbers are still heading in the wrong direction, but since March 4, investors have been clamoring to get their hands on HTC stock and pushing its price up NT$125.50, a 53% increase over the last 10 days. Due to Taiwan’s trading limitations which only allow a company’s stock price to fluctuate 10% in a single day, trading of HTC’s stock has been halted four of the last 7 trading days.
While we’d like to think that the upcoming HTC 10 has something to do with all the excitement, the HTC Vive appears to be what has revived HTC stock price. Besides the fact that HTC sold 15,000 Vive units during the first 10 minutes that it was available for pre-order, HTC has not shared any hard pre-order numbers for its virtual reality system. Driving all the commotion are HTC Vive game developers and industry experts. With GDC kicking into full swing today, there are dozens of news stories which highlight the current state of the gaming industry, placing the HTC Vive at the center of virtual reality revolution. Yes, more people are familiar with the Oculus name, but everyone appears to be mesmerized by HTC’s Vive room-scale motion tracking experience.
We don’t know how high the HTC Vive hype will push HTC’s stock, but we’re hoping that it’s long enough to allow HTC to regain its footing within the smartphone industry.
