Peter Chou to head HTC Future Development Lab

HTC has announced that Peter Chou is leaving the CEO role and will now head the company’s Future Development Lab. The company chairwoman Cher Wang will take over the chief executive responsibilities.

“As an entrepreneur at heart, I am excited to see so many new opportunities, and I am honoured to accept this opportunity to help shape the next stage of HTC’s development,” Wang said in a statement.

“We are seeing rapid changes in the industry, with the smartphone as our personal hub connecting us to a growing world of smart devices. We pioneered the smartphone industry; now we are applying that thinking to realize the potential of a new generation of connected products and services. The overwhelming response that our virtual reality product, HTC Vive, received earlier this month underlines the importance of these new connected technologies for our future,” she added.

Peter Chou has presided over HTC during both good and bad periods of the company, but as HTC moves ahead, it is realising that smartphones aren’t going to be enough to be sustainable, so it needs to look for new avenues and products. Chou has always been a product guy, so giving him reigns of the company’s future products makes sense and by removing the burden of CEO responsibilities, Cher Wang is making sure, he doesn’t get unnecessary distractions.