HTC has once again decided not to make entry-level phones.

During its earnings call earlier this week, the company announced it will ditch cheap smartphones later this year, according to Phonescoop. HTC promised to support cheap phones that have been released, but it wants to focus on high-margin, high-end devices. It will also cut back the total number of new phones to six or seven for the 2017 -- all because it needs to think about profitability.

HTC admitted that competition in the entry-level market is why it's ditching low-cost phones. But this isn’t the first time HTC has reduced its lineup. HTC once forged an exciting segment of the market, adding innovation, but it was then cannibalised by it. In 2012, the company made news when it announced it would only focus on top-tier phones, and since then, it has apparently relaxed on that strategy.

Remember, HTC just announced the U Ultra and HTC U Play at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. They'll release in March. And last year, it released the HTC 10. But now that's getting long in the tooth, and with 2017 getting underway, there's already been plenty of rumours going around about the company's next flagship, which currently has the codename HTC Ocean.

So, for those of you only interested in affordable handsets, it's best to look past HTC. It'll be interesting to see how HTC fares going forward.