HTC is a world-renowned phone manufacturing company known for creating quality handsets. However, given the cut-throat smartphone market today, manufacturers can’t be content to just deliver great hardware, but focus on that special oomph factor to set them apart from the rest as well.
The Taiwanese manufacturer can only boast of its superior hardware but when it comes to the operating system, it has been piggybacking on two hot OSes today — Android and Windows Phone 7.
In this sense, HTC is good in one thing — being second place. Content such as video and games are increasingly necessary to stand out in a market full of Android and Windows Phone devices. Question is, can HTC pull it off? Does it have what it takes to follow Apple’s footsteps?
Let’s examine the possibility.
Unsecured Market Leader Position
At the beginning of May, Taiwan-based mobile vendor HTC was the fifth biggest smartphone manufacturer in terms of shipments, posting record revenues in the last quarter. The success of HTC relies heavily on the two operating systems it runs on, but it fails to grasp a solid first place position from either.
The competition for the Android market continues to intensify, especially from Samsung, the largest Android manufacturer. While with Windows Phone 7, even though HTC gets the top spot according to estimates by AdGAC. the overall sales of WP7 phones is not that impressive. Given the recent partnership announced between Microsoft and Nokia and new OEMs Acer, Fujitsu and ZTE jumping in, HTC’s market advantage could easily be be edged out.
HTC may be performing well right now but it’s in a very vulnerable position to easily be toppled by other brands. How does it differentiate? All of HTC’s devices are equipped with the functional, beautiful Sense UI and HTC Sense cloud features — but based on results, it’s hardly enough.
As HTC CEO Peter Chou said in a Financial Times report, the company needs to move beyond skinned interfaces: “It is not enough to be skin-deep. We need to go bone-deep.”
It certainly has with the announcement of its new developer initiative called HTCdev, which would offer mobile app developers with various tools and resources to build apps tailor made for HTC Sense phones.
Building Up The HTC Empire
There were rumors going around late last year about HTC planning to open up its very own App Store, which highlights the increasing pressure on device manufacturers to differentiate themselves through content and Internet services, as competition heats up in the fast-growing smartphone sector.
The manufacturing company also invested on two huge companies — Saffron Digital, which distributes video for handset manufacturers and carriers, and OnLive, the gaming platform which streams video games to a PC or TV.
HTC also currently enjoys a partnership with US e-books distributor Kobo and it is thought that the company’s recent hires have been brought in to assist with delivering Kobo’s content worldwide but to also help the expansion of its new HTCSense.com service.
Although the deals do not force exclusivity with HTC, it gives the manufacturer a solid position to be right in the thick of things and it wouldn’t be surprising if it takes advantage of its position to get better access to content over competitors.
Aside from these facts, there’s also a rumor that we’ve heard about HTC being a $10 million backer to Taiwan’s first incubator, appWorks. Such a powerful financial move could place HTC into the position to buy up startups and talent before they’re seen elsewhere.
Following Apple’s Footsteps
Smartphone manufacturers that aim to dominate can’t just build their own interfaces as HTC has done up to this point with its Sense UI. They need to focus on finding ways to differentiate and be actively involved in the content side too.
While none of the examples above are definitive evidences to HTC coming up with its new platform, it’s fun to speculate with the idea.
I am not suggesting that HTC drops its support to Android and Windows Phone but instead, introduce its very own operating system to take advantage of exclusive content and features.
Doing so would put HTC directly in Apple’s footsteps, where the manufacturer is also dictating the software of the device. It’s a method that has rung true for Apple thus far, and could prove to be the tipping point for HTC’s continued success.
HTC? Dumbest idea ever. They would be lucky to be a shadow of Samsung, and they just copy cat other people’s stuff.
You make it sound so easy, they just need their own OS, devs, app store, and everything else under the sun – Good luck with that scenario. Even if they managed to pull together all the disparate parts doesn’t mean it will make an Apple type whole. Google can’t even do it.
But, you’re scenario does point out what a mess android is for handset makers to make money and differentiate themselves in that ecosystem and it points to even more android fragmentation.
http://www.supershops.org
@The Gnome agreed that Samsung are ahead in the android market at the moment: what can compete with the Galaxy S II?! But HTC have always been ‘the’ smartphone manufacturer of merit and have continued to make a mark with Android, their HTC Desire handset outselling the iPhone 4 in the UK. The way HTC are going in providing their own cloud services, their own beautiful and accessible UI, and apps looks more ‘Apple-like’ than any other manufacturer, even if they’re still nowhere near.
@PXLated I didn’t say it was easy. I was merely considering the plausibility of it all considering the momentum HTC is going with its acquisitions and investments.
@MattieTK @The Gnome not to mention offering HTCdev for developers to create apps that specifically support HTC’s sense UI.
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@Francis Tan @The Gnome also realising that in the UK at least the term ‘HTC’ has become synonymous with ‘high quality non-iPhone’, they’ve got a good brand behind them.
I could not disagree with Peter Chou more.
to start looking at bear bones software – to start a trajectory that would see them competing with apple, android and windows at this point would not be wise. I’d take a guess that this is the fasting period of software development in history and in that environment as soon as you get defensive you’re out. The company that seeks to make a penny from every pound rather than ten pennys is going to be there at the end and if there is a incentve for your competition to do it for free….then you should do it first.
Microsoft are suffering now because they tried to protect rather than expand.
If HTC are going to make apps, then they need to be the kind of apps that are hard to replicate and that a kid can’t just come up with overnight……so those involving algorithms, AI, etc. But ultimately it’s probably going to have to be free, and a loss leader. Google are set up for this business model and If they continue to go about making things free and open, making exclusive software and deals is just going to P#$$ people off.
Palm, Nokia, Microsoft…Apple shortly (unless they wow us again with bleeding edge hardware) have all proved that the closed model is history. I suspect that if things continue as they are Apple will have ditched it’s OS in 5 years and will also be using Android.
This is infastructure being built now, most of what Google are making they will not benefit from directly. They are a company within a company so to compete withe the BIG G only makes sense if you are also competing with the little G. We’re on the verge of having a unified system, a unified database. phone, pcs, tvs, radios, camcorders, watches, necklaces, tennis rackets…all capable of accessing the same information. No more wires or intrusive syncing. Computers will stop giving people heart attacks…..I actually think quite seriously that this is comparable to the dawn of penicillin; people will live longer, less stress filled lives.
If HTC fence at this point and have apps that only work on HTC, they will only suceed in confusing their customers, and no doubt have a little golden period of uniqueness before the dead end.
My view is that HTC should concentrate on what they can put android IN, and what can they make that is unique. Robotics for example, Children’s toys, model airplanes, other consumer electrical devices. Devices should be more transformable and connectable into hardware networks.
There is also value in curation, tailoring, and customer service. As android gets increasingly complex having a human representative that can understand a query and then tailor the users phone remotely to solve a requirement would be valuable service for people that don’t. want to be confused by options, or wish to spend a decade customizing their phone.
I guess it’s not “Following Apple’s Footsteps” but following Samsung’s footsteps. HTC is just trying to mimic what Samsung has already started, Samsung Apps. I wonder why HTC keeps on suffixing “S” to their phones. Coincidence?
Nokia and LG should not be underestimated. Apple and Samsung are not in HTC’s league.
Does HTC have what it takes to be the next Apple? NO !
And iam not talking about skills (hardware/software).
What they dont have is the momentum that apple had when they came
out with there “lifestyle product” and the 6 years that google but into android,
to get what it is today. there is no place/need for an other smartphone os for the next years.
Dont forget that there are already a lot of other os (quite good once) around, dying. (bada,meego…)
imho HTC is and was doing a good job over the last 10 years beeing always the first,
if we talk about (wimo/android) smartphones. http://www.quirksmode.org/blog/archives/2011/02/smartphone_sale.html
samsung recently closed the gap, so who is the copy cat in this case ? ;)
more like Samsung
@optome The S suffix is not owned by Samsung but it has been suggested by Google to all its OEMs. It meas Superior. So, similarly to the way the Nexus S is superior to the Nexus One, the Desire S is superior to the Desire. And even if Apple used the S before Samsung (iPhone 3GS) that is not related.
No doubt that HTC has built the best User Experience on top of Android: Sense. It’s no more simply a UI, and that is the HTC OS, running a layer above the Android core.
Services are good: you barely need to find apps for the main tasks as you have HTC Read, HTC Location, HTC Watch, and more rumored to follow. But services are not everything, as Nokia has learned.
HTC makes the best hardware and they need to continue with that. But especially HTC needs an effective way to communicate to people that their hardware is the best! Otherwise people will believe what others tell on their commercials… HTC Sensation is way better than Samsung Galaxy S II, and includes features that GS2 doesn’t have. People just don’t know though.
Apple says on its videos that “If you don’t have an iPhone, you can’t [...]“. All Android users here know they can do the same, often better, and with less restrictions.
Samsung showed on its videos GS2 has voice commands, but that’s just an app that evryone can download from the market on any Android phone.
Sensation capture stereo audio and has the best noise cancellation feature thanks to the 5 microphones on its back cover, that’s a fact nobody else matches at the moment.
@The Gnome HTC started to produce PDAs in 1997, when Samsung didn’t even know what they were. And the only copycat here is Sammy, with the Galaxy S looking exactly like an iPhone and the TouchWiz UI looking exactly like the iOS application pages.
True, Samsung is ahead but that is only thanks to its good marketing and to a global brand.
HTC does have what it takes to be the next Apple. They just have to use the advice that Jobs gave to Mark Parker (Nike’s CEO). “Get rid of the crappy stuff”.http://www.macstories.net/links/steve-jobs-get-rid-of-the-crappy-stuff/
Not a chance in a million years.Hardware is what HTC’s does; hardware is a side-effect of what Apple does. The fact that Apple makes the bulk of its money selling hardware doesn’t mean that it’s a “hardware company”.
“True, Samsung is ahead but that is only thanks to its good marketing and to a global brand.”Isn’t that (global brand and especially marketing) also true about Apple and their success the last years?? ;)
@Mikko Lauhakari what I meant with global brand is that Samsung is known for different appliances, from vacuum cleaners to freezers, TVs and more, so their brand awareness is higher when compared to a company that does only smartphones. About the mobile area of Samsung, their success has been reached copying both the design and the software interface of Apple, so nothing original and innovative!
@flapic aaah well yeah, that’s true!the Samsung interface is very much like Apples, I think it has been for a while, or?But on the “exterior”, I kind of feel like. How many ways are there to make a square little box with a screen on? It’s like TV makers starting to sue each other cuz’ they look alike. Patents of that sort should be trashed faster than quick.