It appears that Taiwan’s HTC (TPE: 2498) is going through something of a transition.
Last week the company announced that its’ CEO Peter Chou had stepped down to lead the company’s innovation lab, being replaced by founder Cheryl Wang. On Friday in Taipei the company announced that HTC’s design chief Jonah Becker was departing the company.
“We can confirm that Jonah Becker has left HTC; he had been with the Company since HTC acquired One & Co over six years ago,” a statement from the company read. “We would like to thank Jonah for his work with HTC, and wish him all the best in his future endeavours. He has been succeeded by Daniel Hundt, based in our San Francisco design office.”
This announcement comes just under a year after the Scott Croyle, who held the position of design chief for quite some time, was moving on.
It’s been an amazing seventeen year journey with One & Co and HTC, but it’s time for a new adventure. Stay tuned for details of what’s next.
— Jonah Becker (@JonahABecker) March 26, 2015
Why the departure?
There is no clear reason Becker chose to depart the company at this time. While HTC’s new One M9 was criticized for its boring design, the company had a series of design wins with its Periscope and VR headset revealed at the 2015 Mobile World Congress.
It could be that the company’s new CEO would like a clean slate as she hopes to reboot the company. With any large firm there are more political alliances than Frank Underwood could deal with and a successful corporate reboot might mean installing new faces.
If HTC wants to properly compete, it needs a new, fresh and compelling design language. Perhaps CEO Wang thinks the only way to effectively do this is through a new team.
