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HTC, despite their new hope (HTC one android) is bleeding profits and revenue. Android cannot keep any phone company alive that is making beautiful phones, it only works well for Chinese companies and Samsung. A new rumor suggests that HTC will make a windows phone model of the HTC one. But what if HTC just switches to an all WP strategy?
HTC is in the same boat on the WP side as they are on the Android side. Sammy has the resources and unethical business practices on the Android side while Nokia has superior quality and technology on WP platform.
I look for HTC to either get bought-out or become insolvent.
It has to struggle on both the sides....samsung on droid and nokia on WP....bad luck maybe :p
Lol what?
I think it would be interesting to see HTC bought out by Sony some other large electronics company. HTC has good recognition in the mobile world but they can't compete against Sammy. Sony has the money but had never been able to get a good market share of the cell phone industry.
Things are going to get worse for HTC. Google is pushing Motorola and Huawei is expanding to developed markets.
They can sell both, but improve the support for WP and spend more in marketing. Microsoft pays money to Nokia for the exclusivity.
They can do both. I think, GDR 3 is where HTC can do some nice things with WP. Remember, they initiated the process of porting over Android HW to WP with all their WP7 Gen 1 models.
Personally, they need to pick something signature and focus on that. They have edgy industrial design, but I'd pick the audio component and make that be the reason to get a HTC WP. Build on the Beats Audio and Boomsound stuff and add compatible apps and accessories too. I'd love to see a quad core HTC WP8 phone that emphasizes audio and gaming support, along with stylish mid rangers like the 8S line.
I think it would be a wiser move for HTC to go solely to WP. If they drop their entire Android effort, that frees up HUGE resources that they can put into WP. All off a sudden they can afford to commission a lot more exclusive apps and marquee game titles just like Nokia does. Because honestly, people are mostly choosing Nokia for their exclusive apps. As much as I love Nokia, I cannot deny that HTC makes beautiful hardware too. So I honestly think if HTC dropped Android, they could do some serious damage in the WP world and turn profits. There are also a lot of HTC loyalists who would also give WP a try if that was their only platform; it would only benefit WP as a whole. Android is saturated. WP is not and has a lot of room to grow. Do you want to GRAB a piece of a growing market, or fight neck and neck in a saturated one?
If HTC had actually put a concerted effort into WP 8 instead of neglecting it, they and WP would be in a better position. Now they are being squeezed out of both the Android and WP markets. I give them 2 years to right the ship or it's lights out.
HTC has never been more, nor wanted to be more, than a parts assembler. That just isn't enough these days. Even the hardware manufacturers must involve themselves in ecosystem development. They must also push the limits of what is possible through real innovation (meaning research investments, filing patents, buying innovative startups, designing custom ICs etc). HTC hasn't meaningfully engaged in any of that... not for WP and not for Android.
HTC's understanding of innovation is limited to being the first to market with a new (but off the shelf) component. A new Qualcomm chipset, a new display panel or whatnot. Being entirely focused on hardware, industrial design is also central to their efforts, and despite them doing some great stuff in that department, it isn't objectively better than what Apple or Nokia achieve.
HTC is on a slow path to their own demise. IMHO their board is incompetent and should be fired. Unfortunately, I suspect HTC will be sold before that happens.
Exactly my point. Android is "Galaxy" not Android. (at least to consumers) And the only one who can challenge the Galaxy hegemony is Google and Motorola. HTC needs to go all Windows Phone, and make really good ones. It would benefit Nokia and HTC.
No. That is but a small part of those payments. Nokia supplies Microsoft with all their world wide mapping data (for bing) and also provides all of WP's most important navigation apps. That data alone is worth billions. HTC has nothing similar to offer.
...and that's ultimately htc's biggest problem. They don't have anything distinct to offer MSFT at this point. Plus, they always do one or two things to get in their own way. The One to me is better than the S4, but there are some things like not launching on time, how they reworked the button layout, not making the camera as sharp as it could be (although it is a nice start), etc. The 8X was nice, but again, its the little things...no dedicated music app to take advantage of the amp, not making wireless charging standard, not tweaking the cam a bit more, etc. They just have a habit of over promising and being underwhelming in the stuff they hype up in the marketing.
The only way they would do this is if Microsoft gave them money for an exclusivity offer.
Else, I could see Microsoft buying out HTC if they go under.
I don't think Windows Phone will help the HTC situation; but, they should invest more heavily into the ecosystem simply to diversify their portfolio since Android isn't working out as well.
HTC is sadly stuck in the Samsung Galaxy S days when they ruled the Android roost and would cough up a handset and get sales because Sense was better than anything out there. It would be interesting if MSFT bought them out...but that might mean we still get updates slower...
Beyond expertise, HTC doesn't offer anything to Microsoft worth buying. The brand isn't worth buying. The factories and assembly lines aren't worth buying. HTC have no research projects worth acquiring, nor do they own a single software franchise or service of economic importance. We might argue price, as HTC would probably cost Microsoft less than a third of what it would cost to buy Nokia, but price is never a good reason to buy a company if it doesn't complement your current operations in meaningful ways.
If Microsoft buys a manufacturer, it will be Nokia, which has something to offer Microsoft in all of the areas I just listed.
The only way a HTC purchase by Microsoft would make sense, is if Nokia terminated their WP efforts.
How ironic would it be for HTC to get bought out by MSFT...started out as a hardware assembly company for the carriers and bought out by a software company. Talk about always being owned and controlled by someone else..and when left on their own all they could do is get in their own way....
HTC still has some innovation in hardware to offer Microsoft. I think a buyout is possible and attractive at a much lower cost than Nokia.
That would be news to me. Any interest in explaining what that might be? Purchasing an 'off the shelf' component and putting it in a phone isn't innovation. That is simply leveraging other peoples innovations, which any company can do, as such components are built to be sold on the free market to anbody. Apple, Nokia, HTC, Samsung, even you. Anybody.
Branding has been HTC's only real "innovation", like beats audio. Such brandings are just marketing licenses though. Anyone can incorporate similar or identical hardware and slap the exact same branding on it if desired. That means such branding will remain exclusive to HTC only as long as it doesn't become too successful.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that HTC builds bad hardware. What I am saying is that building good hardware is no longer enough.
That is true to a certain extent. You could also say that WP is "Nokia" not WP. Nokia had an excellent reputation back in the day, and because of that they developed a good fan base. My favorite feature phone ever was a Nokia 8210. I would venture a guess that a lot of WP sales today are because of Nokia rather than WP.
I don't see HTC going all WP. The market is too small at this point. In Q1 2013 Android sales were 26x WP sales (156 million vs. 6 million), so capturing even 5% of the Android market is more sales than the entire WP market. On the other hand, Nokia is probably easier to compete with than Samsung. But I don't think the WP market can support it at this point. Nokia would likely throw in the towel if it wasn't for whatever deals they have worked out with Microsoft.
lots of OEM will join the world of WP8 if the update is really 'BIG' as expected. I hope Blue will come soon enough before iOS7 released (not so much hope)
if they make a windows version of the one then i think they'll see some better sales on the windows front but android is up in the air idk what they want lol
Wait, they should rely to 100 % on a tiny market already mostly occupied by Nokia? And suddenly they would sell more phones?
How would that magic work exactly? :-)
An all Windows strategy would be a disaster for htc. Htc would never sell as many WP as android plus wp have smaller margin as no licence fee. What i would like to see is htc making the same phones for both android and wp with the only difference being software oh and released at the same time!
That's pretty much what I think, although personally I feel they should keep two distinct hardware design languages, similar to the 8X and the One X (both very beautiful phones in my opinion).
Similar hardware, same release date, but a slightly different look matching the OS.
...but maybe they just don't have the resources for that.
This would be a big change for HTC, if they only provide for one platform. They'll lose lots of customers who use HTC's Android range.
Please. Folks don't even want Nokia to go all Windows Phone, and at this moment, HTC needs their hands in as many pots as they can get
HTC are between a rock and hard place right about now. They have a great android device with the HTC One. Seems to be highly regarded in terms of reviews at least. I'm not too sure how well it sold or how profitable it was for them. I feel like it would be harder for HTC to break into Windows Phone than it would Android. Nokia offers way more in terms of apps and device selection. It seems tougher for HTC to differentiate on the WP platform than with Android. I personally think Samsung devices look stale, and HTC is offering the better quality hardware as well as a cleaner UI.
Samsung is headed down the same road that Apple is...there will be a glut on the high end market, especially since how the phones launched are still governed by the US two year contract cycle.
I'm not sure that HTC is now in a position resources wise to make 1 phone specs wise and make it for WP and Android with different designs. They would need the Tier 1 status to do so for their components and I think they lost that earlier this year...hence the One not being launched on time.
I still think that they should pick 1-2 elements, audio being one of them, and excell in that area. Nokia has chosen the camera and mapping (to a slightly lesser degree). You buy a Nokia for the camera and exclusive apps. I think HTC should go the audio + music experience route, for both hardware, accessories and exclusive apps. So "you buy a HTC because it is the best thing to listen to music and watch videos on."
I wouldn't say they should go all WP, but it would hurt to get more serious about supporting it. Just look at Nokia and how they're selling handsets like hotcakes compared to other WP OEM's. It might be tough over on the WP side as well, but it's a much less saturated market without the dominant presence of Samsung and their 50 different Galaxy phones.
If I was HTC I'd release the same phone running Andoid and WP. 1 hardware development and 2 software teams. Software being a lot cheaper than hardware to work with.
WP doesn't support the high-end hardware of Android phones at the moment. I'm not sure if and when this is going to change, even when for example 4-core processors and 1080p screens will be supported sometime in the future.
This year.
Says who (officially)? According to initial rumors we would have Blue soon ;-)
Nobody knows when the updates really are coming. Personally I believe not even Microsoft does. And then we still don't know if the range of supported CPUs will be getting broader, or if it is still limited to a small selection.
I think they should invest in Firefox OS because WP and Android are dominated by Nokia and Sammy respectively. Firefox on the other hand is up for grabs! ;)
Mary Jo Foley was the first to report on the project codenamed 'WP Blue'. She immediately stated that it was intended to RTM in Q4 2013. A week or two later she mentioned that it would slip into Q1 2014. There were no credible rumours pointing to an earlier release date. Still, I definitely agree with the general point you are making. Software release dates are a very tricky business.
In regard to the range of supported SoCs (not CPUs), WP will always be limited to a select few (assuming Microsoft isn't about to change their strategy). There are quite a few documents and many Microsoft officials on record mentioning Microsoft's vision of a standardized hardware and software platform. I'm not sure why people aren't catching on to what that means. Maybe the benefits of that approach just don't make sense to non-developers. I don't know. Anyway, standardization is the opposite of supporting a wide range of varying hardware. Theoretically it should mean just one single SoC, but Microsoft must find a balance between that technically optimal solution and market demands.
GDR3 will certify an additional two or at most three new SoCs for use with WP.
HTC has problem at both sides, at the moment it's better them to stay at Android side, since it gives more money and has bunch of loyal fans.
I don't get it how HTC One isn't the king of the android... S4 is just awfull, you have to be extremelly big fanboy to buy/use it.
I love how everyone here bashes HTC (edit: Correction, A lot of people). I've had a handful of their phones over the years (WM devices as well as WP devices). I had a HTC 8X before I got my 928 (mainly upgraded for the space, I sold my 8X for more than I paid for the 928, so it was a wash). The 8X is a really nice phone, it's smaller, ligher and slicker than the 928, it fits better in a pocket and actually feels better in my hands than the 928 does (I had them both at one time and did a deep compare of them, I was thinking about selling the 928 at one point). Over the years, besides a bad one time to time, they were great phones.
Crap, my HTC Trophy I had, I must of dropped that phone 75 times and watch the battery/back cover go flying across the room, many times. The phone was in mint shape and held up great, one of the most dependable phones I ever have owned (for the low end model that it was).
I would love to see HTC release a KICK A.S.S. Windows Phone 8+ device, up the line to what the Ativ S is, large great screen, good sound system, large (64gb option) amount of memory with expandable storage. A strong device to compete or beat the best of Nokia devices.
I might even be tempted to swich....and I know they can do it...
I think you are completely misreading people's statements. Nobody is bashing HTC. People are just acknowledging that HTC is in a crappy situation (and explaining why) and speculating on what HTC should do to improve their fortunes.
Nokia is also in a crappy situation.
Even WP is in a crappy situation, as not even its entire market share would be enough to support just one of these companies.
I would like HTC to concentrate more on WP only for the fact that the consumer needs more options. I am not interested in a Nokia-only WP experience, and neither should you. Nokia having a monopoly in WP is no better than Samsung having one for Android. Competition benefits the consumer.
I disagree. WP needs a financially successful, respected and well known hardware partner with a strong brand name. At least for now, all of WP's combined market share can't sustain such an effort. That is why I would prefer a Nokia-only WP experience, at least for the time being. One strong OEM that invests all their resources into WP benefits us much more than two weak OEMs that can barely keep themselves afloat.
Competition is only good up until the point where it becomes a circular firing squad.
Besides, Nokia's real competition is not HTC, but Samsung and Apple. The smartphone space is one of the most competitive markets in existence. Nokia has more then enough competition to keep them on their toes, with or without HTC.
It'll be an interesting thing to watch for sure.
I'd say going all-Windows Phone would be the most-likely killer, as they can't touch Nokia when Nokia has the software exclusives. HOWEVER, there's a sliver of hope with Android. That hope would be Tizen. If Samsung bails on Android in a year or two for Tizen, it could leave the established Android market open a bit, and HTC could jump on that. Otherwise, they'd need to partner with Mozilla for the Firefox OS or something, because they simply cannot match the quality of Nokia, and it'll be darned tough to match the quantity of Samsung. Their only hope is some magic fix superphone to force everyone from Samsung, or Samsung would have to be stupid enough to 100% abandon Android for Tizen, then have Tizen fail.
One good example i can think of if HTC goes full WP is...
Their epic designs. (HTC One, urm... any other suggestions?)
For all those who complained that HTC stole Nokia's patent on "using colors outside of black, white and silver in a mobile phone", the 8X is nicely designed, along with the 8S. Nexus One, HTC Legend were great too design wise. Going back further, the Touch Diamond is still the best thing for me they made design wise.
Industrial design wise, for me HTC, Sony, Nokia are the best. I give apple some credit too. Samsung - not so much. But as we've seen, design doesn't sell handsets, performance does - along with improved after market support. Until HTC choses to make an identity based on something they can off that's better than the competition (I think it should be music), they'll be between a rock and a hard place.
Unfortunately, I think HTC are beyond recovery now. Which is a shame for me. I have a HTC Flyer and a HTC Titan. The Flyer was unique, and is still a pleasure to use (although why no dual core HTC?) and the Titan is a brilliant phone in itself. I've also had a Desire Z which was a lovely phone. I want to see HTC succeed but I think it's too late for them.
I'd like to see a one phone for both OSes. Give users choice and perhaps pick up some WP users who wouldn't have used it otherwise
Something like the HD2, just more consumer-friendly
I doubt that will happen. That would be too much of a niche device. If HTC has issues doing updates for Android, you're asking alot for them to do both. Again, they make good devices and are a top 4 brand in my list (I always end up with something HTC, even as a spare). But the after sales support has been a historical weakness for them (see XDA's founding) that has gotten magnified with how they handled Sense 3 and how diluted their brand became with all those damn carrier variants (pay attention, Nokia) and incremental refreshes.
Meh after swindling me with the 8X's poor design and telling me that phones always should have a case and never be put in a pocket they could completely sink for all I care... LG is even a better company IMO
I don't think so. HTC is already stuck doing both. It would take a massive reorganization to just focus on one OS.
Look at Nokia and where they got after the Symbian reorganization. With HTC profits falling, though, they better make a choice.
keep in mind that there'll be no high-end FirefoxOS devices because most phone companies these days are following Samsung's route which is:
1)- make a couple high-end phones and lots of low-end
2)- people will get tired from the low-end phones and will look for high-end phones because low-end are usually slow
3)- ??
4)- profit
and FirefoxOS feels just... basic, the apps are pretty much pathetic to work with.
if HTC wants a decent software for the future, Ubuntu is the best choice. why LG isn't adopting Ubuntu? I don't get it.
I also read on the news that Windows Phone is failing badly, so Windows Phone 8 won't be an attractive choice for customers.
https://forums.windowscentral.com/e?...token=dsQJ_DQN I don't see HTC marketing and advertising it's Windows Phones anyway, not even the new 8XT.
HTC kicked themselves in the rear by going for the high end market only. HTC's strength used to be that their mid range offerings were on point. Now, they went swimming in the premium only pool and Apple (overall), Samsung (Android) and Nokia (WP) are crushing them. Last year's One X, a very good device, is all but forgotten but cause HTC's other weakness shows up...the ****ty after sales software support. You cannot use premium hardware to always fix last year's problems. I still see SGS2s because they run decent enough on 2 y.o. hardware. I wish them well, but they just know how to handcuff themselves so well that perhaps MSFT should buy them out if they're still around once the Nokia deal ends.