HTC 2000-09 Overview

The year 2009 was a rather competitive year for smartphone manufacturers. The year saw the rise of smartphone applications and increase in the sale amounts. Apple’s iPhone and Motorola’s Droid kept making headlines with their online presence. The other players like Blackberry and Nokia struggled to keep pace with the new developments. Thanks to the competition, Windows Mobile OS saw a fall in its influence over the market and gave a birth to mass Android usage.

Amid the competition, HTC has made quite an impression with its continuous innovations and strategies toward the customer-satisfaction. HTC (High Tech Computer Corporation) is a Taiwan-based Smartphone manufacturer started by Cher Mi Wang, the daughter of one of the richest family in Taiwan, in 1997.

Let’s get through some of the more important milestones of HTC.

HTC breaks record in its revenue stream (Dec 13 2004)

This was the time when HTC was only making devices for other companies. HTC, which listed T-Mobile, Orange, Audiovox, Vodafone, O2, i-mate and others among its customers, broke its revenue records for consecutive three months.

The company, which also believed to build devices for PalmOne, including the new Treo 650 smart phone, saw sales top TWD5.42bn ($166.8m) during November 2004, up 102.5 per cent year on year and 34.8 per cent on October’s total, TWD4.02bn ($123.8m). September 2004 was also a record month for the company, with revenues reaching almost TWD3bn ($92.4m).

The Registrar

HTC launched World’s First Tri-band 3G Windows Mobile PDA and 3G Smartphone  (Jun 15 2006)

Despite the fact of being in the market for years, HTC never had any Smartphone under their own brand. They had been building devices for their clients but it was only during 2006 that they finally launched their own branded Smartphone, running Windows Mobile.

The devices were named MTeoR and TyTN. The HTC TyTN delivered a wealth of rich features, showcasing the ultimate ‘Office in your pocket’ experience for business users on the move. The HTC MTeoR was the world’s first 3G Windows Mobile 5.0 Smartphone, and it was a stylish, slim-line, candy bar device.

Business critical functionality, encased in a sleek, stylish form factor, offered the ultimate range of connectivity options including: tri-band UMTS 3G which would allow users to roam across Europe, US and Asia, plus GSM, GPRS, EDGE, Wi-Fi®, Bluetooth®, and a mini-USB port, making data transfer simple – anytime, anywhere.

Both devices were designed with easy messaging opportunity in mind, TyTN featured Direct Push email technology available with Windows Mobile 5.0. The phones were equipped with large 2.2″ TFT LCD. These two products were truly a mark of true smartphones.

The Inquirer

HTC Unveiled First Windows Mobile5.0 Smart Phone (Sept 8, 2006)

HTC did not just stop after MTeoR and TyTN. That was just the beginning and only 3 months later they launched four new branded mobiles promising more to the mobile market. The Smartphones were named HTC S620, HTC P3300, HTC S310, P3600.

The new models featured the push email function of Windows Mobile 5.0. This immediately put them into direct competition with RIM’s BlackBerry. Previous to this, there was hardly any Smartphone developer challenging the technology of Blackberry and according to the results the company was able to make a resistance.

InfoWorld

HTC announced HTC Touch, a new GSM Windows Mobile smart phone.(June 5 2007)

By 2007 a lot of hype was created for the Smartphone market and new break through were being made in the industry with offers of newest technologies. One of the most interesting events was the entry of Apple into the mobile business with their revolutionary iPhone and its touch interface technology.

But HTC was not far from Apple in technology and innovation. On 5th of June just few months prior to launch of iPhone, HTC launched its HTC Touch featuring Windows Mobile Professional, which was optimized for the touch interface. This brought HTC Touch to the direct competition with iPhone and both were hot in the market with competitive prices. The fight for the spot in the market share was rather tough and even a question for survival.

Washington Post

HTC and Google team up to bring Google Phone (Nov 6 2007)

By the end of 2007, there was lot of interest in the operating system for Smartphone. Apple had their unlicensed iPhone OS and there were few in the market that could compete with it. But Google entered the market surprising everyone with its newly furnished Open Sourced Mobile OS named Android- a great innovation which turned the market upside down.

Partnership with Google gave HTC a good opportunity to lead the Android based mobile phone market. This also allowed HTC to explore the open source mobile platform and secure its position for the future among all smartphones.

MacWorld

HTC’s revenue grows nearly 12% (Jan 20 2008)

Despite the tough competition with iPhone and other smartphones, HTC was able to sell 11.8 million handset overall making increasing rate of sales constantly. Out of which 2 million came from HTC Touch alone. On the other hand Apple managed to sell 4 million iPhones. So it feels like HTC managed to become the winner of the contest.

Smartphones became the hottest technology during the time of economic recession and HTC played major role in bringing great products to the market and pushing it further with a continuous improvements which were offered for the customers. CEO of HTC, Chou confirmed that the global economic turmoil made no impact on their sales.

Washington Post

HTC launched its first Android powered device (March 20 2008)

HTC named its first Android powered device HTC Dream. It became the first manufacture to bring Android phone to the market. On the second position was the South Korean giant Samsung, with its own version of Android phone. So it feels like the market was ready to give a chance for this company for providing it with various offers to the mass of customers.

Further, on August 2008, T-Mobile confirmed that HTC Dream was going to be their first Android mobile, and became the first network to provide the Android phone. The cooperation was just impressive which turned into a great advantage for both companies.

HTC unveils first global ad campaign (Oct 26 2009)

Being a sampling brand was a very important for designing product for the consumers and so HTC has rose from being third party manufacturer to among the leading mobile brand. HTC has always revamped its brand with time changing to better fit into the frames of the newest products. On 26th October, HTC unveiled its first global advertisement campaign (YOU campaign) across 20 countries for the repositioning of its brand.

Having one of the most awesome slogans for the manufacture companies ‘You don’t need to get a phone. You need a phone that gets you’, HTC commits to focus on people, their needs and how they work and live to ensure that HTC devices suits them perfectly. This is what HTC had to say about the campaign:

“Quietly brilliant is doing great things in a humble way, with the belief that the best things in life can only be experienced, not explained,” said John Wang, chief marketing officer, HTC Corporation. “The YOU campaign is the perfect embodiment of ‘quietly brilliant’ and is core to HTC as a company, innovator and partner.”

This is a very important strategy which allowed HTC to build itself as a strong brand in the global market introducing all of its efforts towards the customer satisfaction. This shows the long interest of the company towards the Smartphone industry.

HTC.com

The Future of HTC (Dec 4 2009)

On December 2009, HTC launched its First ‘Dumb’ Phone, showcasing HTC’s own software platform. This may not just be a just a little step but a long term plan of HTC to enter into the Mobile OS industry.

With a track record of thousands of smart phones and huge success story, HTC might just be gearing up to give the other mobile OS a real tough competition.

TechTree