HTC has been struggling to maintain its status in the Android sphere, and although it’s made some strides with positive reviews surrounding the recent launch of the HTC One handset, it was 2011's Thunderbolt handset that was supposed to be a boon for the Taiwan-based company.

The Thunderbolt was the first 4G LTE phone on Verizon Wireless, and while the carrier made it a point to advertise and hype it up as such, it was plagued by bugs and a poor battery life, not to mention an inconsistent update cycle. As Phandroid points out, it eventually became a farce in the smartphone world, with technology evangelists like Steve Wozniak saying it was one of the worst phones he's ever owned.

Although HTC hasn't officially made a statement, an HTC employee with the alias Erick_HTC, which some sites have identified as Erick Nielsen, offered an apology for the poor performance of the phone on reddit and the way it affected the company’s image:

Sorry to hear about the experience. Sorry about the Thunderbolt in general. It was a difficult project. I wish we didn’t destroy your trust in us, but I understand why you do feel that way.

Nielsen later followed up to add more to the statement with a bullet-point list of desires that the company has for its customers: “I want you to be happy with your HTC purchase…with our customer service…I don’t want you to return the device if it isn't broken.” He asked that users give HTC another chance with handsets like the HTC One.

Nielsen added that his reddit post shouldn't be taken as official word from HTC, since he’s not a part of the marketing or public relations team, and that he feels grateful that the company allows him to have this kind of interaction with its users. “If I can be here, doing this—I think everyone will win." He later replied to another redditor with "The fact that you are still looking at the One after the bad experience you had (have) is probably difficult. We appreciate it and will not let you down on this device. Thank you very much."