Cher Wang, chairwoman of troubled smartphone maker HTC, said that the company’s biggest challenge is “the next quarter”, following the company recently reporting its first loss.

In an interview with Bloomberg, the executive said that the company is suffering due to “a gap between our new products coming out”. It has lost market share in the mass-market in the face of fierce competition from a range of rivals, including Samsung, LG, Nokia, Huawei and ZTE.

Peter Chou, the company’s CEO, previously said that its Q3 performance was impacted by the vendor clearing older products from the channel, ready for the introduction of new devices.

With HTC’s performance having deteriorated in recent quarters, there has been speculation that the company will be involved in the next round of industry consolidation.

But Wang was not drawn on the speculation, arguing: “I believe that if you are passionate with your company, if you are passionate with this technology, you really believe your vision is to bring the best products to this world. [If] you believe this ubiquitous intelligent technology is still at its infancy stage, why do you want to consolidate?”

And she also noted that the company’s marketing efforts have had problems, “but we are improving on that”.

“HTC is not only a company of innovation in technology, we have to integrate this innovation in our DNA, and have the innovation in marketing also,” Wang concluded.