HTC appoints first UK and Ireland marketing director

HTC has appointed James Atkins as its first UK and Ireland head of marketing to lead a change of strategy to broaden the brand’s appeal to “everyday consumers”.

Atkins will be responsible for linking above the line campaigns wih experiential activity and will report to Phil Roberson, HTC’s executive director of the UK and Ireland. Roberson replaces Jon French who was promoted to vice president of sales and operations for EMEA earlier this year.

HTC said earlier this year that it was to expand its European marketing department in preparation for a major push to appeal to all consumers, rather than the early technology adopters that have pushed the brand to its current position.

Although HTC does not release UK-specific figures, the company’s June revenues were up 10.9% month on month to 45 billion Taiwan dollars (£981m), up 87.7% year on year.

HTC claims it has a 20% share of the UK smartphone market and forecasts it will sell about 11 million smartphones in the current quarter.

Atkins joins from BBC and ITV joint venture, Freesat, where he was commercial marketing manager.

Prior to joining Freesat, Atkins was head of marketing at LG Electronics and held a product manager role at Panasonic.

Separately, Apple is battling HTC, accusing the Taiwanese company of infringing its patents linked to the iPhone and iPad.

HTC’s general counsel Grace Lei says: “HTC is disappointed at Apple’s constant attempts at litigations instead of competing fairly in the market.

“HTC strongly denies all infringement claims raised by Apple in the past and present and reiterates our determination and commitment to protect our intellectual property rights.”

Apple has already made patent infringement claims against rivals Samsung and Nokia.

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