Yves Maitre – Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation

September 7, 2020

HTC CEO Yves Maitre Steps Down After Less Than One Year

With less than one year at the company’s helm, HTC announced that Yves Maitre is stepping down as the company’s President and CEO.

Maitre took over as CEO just shy one year ago in late September 2019. According to Engadget, the French former executive is stepping down due to “personal reasons.”

Cher Wang, who took over as CEO in March 2015 and then later stepped down to make way for Maitre, is said to return to the position of CEO from her previous position as Chairwoman of the board.

HTC CEO Yves Maitre Resigns After Less Than A Year

HTC CEO Yves Maitre has resigned, citing personal reasons, in just less than a year since he took over the role.

Maitre assumed the position of CEO in late September 2019, around a month before HTC launched its latest consumer-focused PC VR headset, the Vive Cosmos. Maitre moved to HTC from French phone company Orange, and at the time HTC emphasized “5G and XR” as areas of potential growth.

In an interview with Bloomberg shortly after the launch of the Cosmos, Maitre said that he wasn’t sure that “the target is to beat Oculus.” The comments preceded a year where HTC has increasingly pivoted toward the enterprise market and shifted focus away from consumers.

Now, just shy of a year since Maitre became CEO, he has resigned from the position for personal reasons. Here’s a statement on the resignation issued by HTC:

HTC Corp., the global leader in smartphone and virtual reality innovation, today announced that the strict international travel restrictions due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which has impacted the lives of millions as well as business globally, have had an impact on its CEO, Yves Maitre, in reconciling work and family. Today, the Board of Directors accepted Yves’ resignation for personal reasons. We wish him the very best in his future endeavors. The Company’s chairwoman, Cher Wang, has assumed the CEO position.

Cher Wang has been in the CEO before — she took over as CEO in 2015 from Peter Chou and stayed in the role until last year. Yves Maitre took over from Wang in September of last year.

October 7, 2019

HTC CEO Yves Maitre: ‘I’m Not Sure That The Target Is To Beat Oculus’

In an interview with Bloomburg Technology, newly-appointed HTC Ceo Yves Maitre spoke about the competition in the VR market between Oculus and HTC. He also spoke about the VR market at large and how it has affected HTC’s performance and stock price.

Maitre began by noting that, at the time of recording, the embargo on HTC’s newest VR headset, the Vive Cosmos, had broken a few hours prior. He noted that, “critics are very, very positive. We are more than happy, and we will continue to move forward towards our [company] strategy, which is … 5G and XR reality.”

Contrary to Maitre’s comments on the critics’ response, we had mixed feelings about HTC’s newest headset. If you haven’t already, make sure to check out our review of the Vive Cosmos.

This prompted Bloomberg to question Maitre about the company’s low stock prices amid their pivot from smartphones to headsets, along with 5G technology. “Clearly the VR market is not going at the speed we were expecting, but we continue to invest towards this direction,” responded Maitre. He indicated that a company can go through peaks and troughs, especially during periods of new investment and research. However, he remains confident that the company is “climbing the mountain” to the next peak.

On the topic of competition, Bloomberg asked Maitre how HTC plans to beat Oculus in the VR market. “I’m not sure that the target is to beat Oculus,” he said. “The market is very large. We are competing with Oculus, [but] Oculus is its own segment which is purely gamer and social network. [sic] I think the market is very large, when you look at the B2B [business to business] for example, [there] is also a lot of opportunity. I think everything is moving forward and the market is, again, very large.”

Do you think HTC will find success with Vive Cosmos? Let us know in the comments below!

The post HTC CEO Yves Maitre: ‘I’m Not Sure That The Target Is To Beat Oculus’ appeared first on UploadVR.

September 17, 2019

New HTC CEO Vows Continued Focus on Vive and XR

HTC has announced the appointment of Yves Maitre as its new CEO. Maitre, a former exec at French telecom Orange, says he will continue to grow the future of both 5G and XR as the company’s leader.

Cher Wang, who took over as company CEO in March 2015, is stepping down to continue as Chairwoman of the HTC board. HTC says she will focus on future technologies that both align with the company’s portfolio and vision of Vive Reality.

At Orange, Yves served as EVP of consumer equipment and partnerships, overseeing Orange’s connected technology strategy and business.

“Across the world, HTC is recognized for its firsts across the mobile and XR space. I am incredibly energized to grow the future of both 5G and XR alongside HTC employees, customers and investors,” said Maitre. “We will set out immediately to continue the transition from building the worlds’ best consumer hardware to also building complete services around them to make them easy to manage and deploy.”

HTC Appoints new CEO as Cher Wang Steps Down Ahead of Vive Cosmos Launch

October will be an important month for HTC’s fortunes with the impending release of its latest consumer virtual reality (VR) headset, Vive Cosmos. Today, the company has announced that CEO and Chairwoman Cher Wang would be stepping down as CEO, replaced by Yves Maitre.

Yves Maitre, CEO, HTC

Previously serving as EVP of Consumer Equipment and Partnerships for telecommunications firm Orange, Maitre has a long history in consumer electronics having also served as a member of Orange’s innovation technology group.

Wang will retain her role as Chairwoman of the HTC board, continuing her focus on future technology like the Vive brand.

“When I took over as CEO four years ago, I set out to reinvent HTC as a complete ecosystem company and lay the foundations for the company to flourish across 5G and XR. So, now is the perfect time to hand over the stewardship of HTC to a strong leader to guide us on the next stage of our journey,” said Cher Wang, Chairwoman, HTC in a statement. “I am truly delighted that Yves is taking the reins; he has a long association with our company, and he shares our passion for innovation. I firmly believe Yves is the right leader to continue to lead HTC to its full potential.”

Vive Cosmos

“HTC has long been a bellwether for new technology innovation and I’m honoured to be selected by the Board of Directors to lead the next phase of HTC,” said Yves Maitre, CEO at HTC. “Across the world, HTC is recognized for its firsts across the mobile and XR space. I am incredibly energized to grow the future of both 5G and XR alongside HTC employees, customers and investors. We will set out immediately to continue the transition from building the worlds’ best consumer hardware to also building complete services around them to make them easy to manage and deploy.”

As a whole HTC hasn’t been doing particularly great of late, experiencing substantial losses between January and March 2019. With the original HTC Vive now over three years old and devices like HTC Vive Pro aimed more towards the enterprise market, the arrival of Vive Cosmos next month is a crucial one. The company is heavily investing in future technologies and partnerships, as these progress VRFocus will keep you updated.

September 17, 2019

HTC CEO Cher Wang Steps Down As Vive Cosmos Approaches

Cher Wang, CEO of HTC Corporation, is stepping down as head of the company.

Wang, who remains Chairwoman of the HTC board, will be replaced by Yves Maitre from French telecom company, Orange. In a press release, the company said its former CEO will now focus on “future technologies” including its Vive Reality initiative.

“When I took over as CEO four years ago, I set out to reinvent HTC as a complete ecosystem company and lay the foundations for the company to flourish across 5G and XR [extended reality],” Wang said in a prepared statement. “So, now is the perfect time to hand over the stewardship of HTC to a strong leader to guide us on the next stage of our journey,”

Wang became CEO of HTC in 2015, replacing Peter Chou. That was roughly a year before it launched the HTC Vive VR headset with Valve. Over the following years, HTC launched four more VR headsets, including the enterprise-focused Vive Pro and Vive Pro Eye as well as the standalone Vive Focus and Vive Focus Plus.

But, as HTC expands its VR operations, declining smartphone sales routinely led to poor fiscal reports.

Maitre’s appointment suggests the company isn’t ready to throw in the towel on smartphones yet. In a prepared statement, though, the new CEO emphasized “both 5G and XR” as future growth areas for the company.

Next month HTC will launch its second consumer-focused PC VR headset, the Vive Cosmos. The kit offers impressive optics and inside-out tracking, with the promise of modular upgrades. But, at $699, we’ll have to wait and see how it competes with the affordable ($399) Oculus Rift S and the high-end ($999) Valve Index.

The post HTC CEO Cher Wang Steps Down As Vive Cosmos Approaches appeared first on UploadVR.