WARNING: this is one of the nerdier gadget posts. If you’re afraid of random letter acronyms, it might be best to stop reading now. But if you’re still with me, enjoy!
It goes without saying that the iPhone has had its fair share of hype this summer. But I’ll say it anyway: Apple dominated mobile phone news this year and you know what? That bugs me. So let me quickly get a few things out of the way before diving into this. Yes - the iPhone is cool and game changing. And yes - I wrote about it three more times than I should have this summer. Good. Let’s move on.
What bothers me about all this is that with all the hubbub around the iPhone there’s been one big story that has been severely overlooked: HTC’s killer year of developments.
For those unfamiliar, HTC (High Tech Computer Corporation (the coolest brand name ever!)) is a Taiwanese ODM (Original Design Manufacturer) and an OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer). Got it? Ok, let’s say that another way: HTC is a company that makes phones that are sometimes branded as “HTC” and sometimes branded as something else. It would be like if Nike took the swooshes off of some of its shoes so that Adidas could buy them to slap a few stripes on there. Weird, right?
Well anyway, for a long time HTC was only an ODM, sending its unbranded phones to companies like Compaq, iMate, Audiovox, and even carrier branded phones from TMobile, and AT&T. But recently, HTC started selling phones with its own logo on them, and has actually been quite successful so far.
This year HTC successfully launched a self branded campaign for its Touch Diamond, a hopeful competitor to the iPhone consumer. Surprisingly, the Diamond has already sold a million units since launch, and it’s not even available in the states yet (but will be out on Sprint networks by the month’s end).
Later this year HTC will continue its self branded success with the highly anticipated (by me) launch of the Touch Pro (already out in Europe) a more powerful device with a full keyboard (QWERTY, plus a row of numbers… a previously unimagined concept). Plus, almost out of nowhere, HTC announced last week the launch of the S740 (needs a better code name…) a device that should appeal to just about any Windows Mobile enthusiast.
With the iPhone aside (and yes, that’s a large “aside”), HTC only has a few competitors in the Smart/PDA-Phone market this year. Mainly, the new Palm Treo Pro (which received the best reviews of any Palm phone in years), TMobile’s largely hyped Android-powered Dream (the Google Phone), or Sony’s uber-phone, the XPERIA (which may or may not be delayed until 2009).
But wait… HTC’s biggest competitors (again, aside from the iPhone) all have something strange in common…
As the story goes, HTC is in fact the ODM for the Palm Treo Pro, the TMobile Dream, AND the Sony XPERIA!
HTC’s biggest competition is itselft (aside from the iPhone…). HTC as an OEM is competing with HTC the ODM. Strange, but true, and either way HTC wins.
So even though the times might be changing, it’s good to see someone stand up to the iPhone. Now all HTC needs is some Steve Jobs like marketing… then who knows what could happen.
September 3rd, 2008 at 8:29 am
Zach, great post. This kind of thing has fascinated me ever since I did a big research project last year on the mobile phone industry in China. (http://www.forrester.com/Research/Document/0,7211,43019,00.html)
There are so many amazing trends in Asia, especially around mobility — many of which are largely unknown or misinterpreted by Western observers:
1. the ubiquitous and rapdily growing adoption of mobile phones — which in countries like China, South Korea, and Japan are to a fair degree leapfrogging over PCs as the CE platform of choice.
2. differing user patterns within the user base — much higher use of SMS compared with voice, for instance.
3. a very dynamically evolving set of industry clusters (ODMs, OEMs, EMSes, etc.). Startups in the consumer electronics industry are sprouting up like mushrooms after a rain, especially in mainland China (e.g., in Zhongguancun, aka “China’s Silicon Valley” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhong_Guan_Cun). In essence, Chinese industry is diversifying up-market, expanding on its raw manufacturing capacity and now moving into higher-order activities like tech entrepreneurship, product design, and marketing.
September 3rd, 2008 at 2:53 pm
or windows mobile could get their act together and release an operating system that runs as smoothly as the iPhone op does. (and this is coming from a huge Microsoft/Win Mo) fan.
September 3rd, 2008 at 4:37 pm
@Chris
I’ve actually read that report and really, really enjoyed it- but didn’t know you worked on that! Good stuff.
Pretty much all I can say about this: Don’t get me started on the Asian mobile market and the slow American lag in technology…
@Drew
You bring up a good point, and a post I’ve wanted to write for a while, about Apple makes a) hardware b) operating systems, while Microsoft makes only b) OS… the smoothness is inherent in this connection (and conversely, the lag is inherent in this disconnect).
November 18th, 2009 at 10:33 am
[...] Starting in the late ’90s, HTC has been a driving force of some of the coolest mobile devices on the market. But because HTC rebranded phones for other companies, until recently, you likely wouldn’t have known where the devices came from. Now, after more than a decade behind the scenes of the smartphone world, HTC’s taken huge steps in marketing itself as a consumer product. (For a little more background reading on HTC’s history, check out my totally geeky post from last fall on HTC’s move from being an ODM to an OEM.) [...]