Project Report from the year 2011 in the subject Business economics - Marketing, Corporate Communication, CRM, Market Research, Social Media, grade: 1,7, San Diego State University (Marketing Department), language: English, abstract: HTC quickly emerged on the smartphone scene with the remarkable success of The Sense, one of its first models, and broke many industry sales records. People were asking, "Who is HTC?" Our research indicates that HTC's rapid rise to success was because of innovation and technological capabilities. Even though the HTC brand was not widely recognized, its smartphones were generating interest. In our primary research, we discovered that some people owned an HTC phone but did not know that HTC was the manufacturer. Obviously, brand awareness was relatively low. For HTC to stay relevant in the hypercompetitive smartphone industry, it needs serious revamping of its marketing plan. With smartphone market penetration increasing to more than 20 percent in the past five years and reaching 46.8 percent in Q3 2011, HTC has tremendous opportunities to establish a solid market position. After examining the market conditions and current HTC performance in the U.S., our team proposes that HTC position itself as a technological leader by targeting consumers ages 18 to 34. This promising segment has potential sales of $2.5 million. We analyzed the industry and examined external factors that could impact HTC's bottom line. This analysis gave us crucial insight into the smartphone market. We also analyzed the competitive environment that includes Apple, Motorola, and RIM (Blackberry). HTC, which has a positive reputation on the merits of its technology, needs to boldly differentiate itself in the marketplace. Through market analysis, we discovered that HTC has a strong market size, market potential, and distinct target markets. We recommend that HTC take specific steps through segmenting, targeting, and positioning to execute its marketing plan. We ar