HTC may be the next once-mighty smartphone maker to go down the ODM route, outsourcing its handset activities to partners or concentrating on customized or white label models, especially in the US. The Taiwanese firm announced a $150 price cut on its U Ultra model in the US, only a month after its launch there, taking it down to $599 amid waning support from operators in the country. In a report, analysts at Wave7 Research wrote: “HTC has bleak prospects, given lack of availability from T-Mobile and AT&T and weak prepaid availability, while the OEM has tiny share of 2% at Sprint and <1% at Verizon.” The past few years have seen a succession of blows to HTC, whose latest…