HTC CEO steps back to focus on fixing smartphone slide - FT

TAIPEI (Reuters) - HTC Corp's chief executive has handed some duties to the company's chairwoman as the smartphone maker struggles to claw back market share from Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd , the Financial Times reported.

Chief executive Peter Chou is temporarily focusing on innovation and product development after HTC's latest One handset failed to arrest a slide in the company's share of the global smartphone business, the newspaper reported.

Cher Wang, chairwoman and company co-founder, is stepping up her duties to include sales, marketing and supplier relationship, it said.

H. T. Chou, another co-founder, has returned to the company to head certain phone projects, said a source with knowledge of the matter.

HTC, which posted its first quarterly loss this month, has been laid low by the product and marketing might of Apple and Samsung - woes that have been exacerbated by supply-chain constraints and internal turmoil.

Once ranked among the top five phonemakers by shipments, HTC this year fell out of the top 10, according to Gartner.

HTC officials were not immediately available for comment.

Shares of HTC fell 1.1 percent minutes after market opened, lagging the main index's <.TWII> 0.06 percent dip. (Reporting by Faith Hung; Editing by Stephen Coates)