HTC shifts focus away from Windows Mobile to Android

[Justin]

A leaked portfolio of upcoming HTC products indicates the company is shifting much of their focus to Android-based phones. Five of the eight models due for 2010 will sport Android, the remainder powered by Windows Mobile 6.5. This marks a change for HTC, which has primarily manufactured Windows-based devices.

As a member of the Open Handset Alliance, HTC's move is unsurprising. The HTC Dream -- known by most as the G1 -- was their first success. The phone debuted Android for the world, demonstrating the platform's flexibility. HTC will capitalize on this growing market with their "flagship" phone for 2010, the Bravo, which will be an Android device.

Android 2.0's feature richness may have been a factor in HTC's decision. If it can pull a company away from Windows Mobile 6.5, it could erode market share for other big-name players too.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/37259-htc-shifts-focus-away-from-windows-mobile-to-android.html

 

[paynetrain007]

FAIL. You'd think that a company that had such success with windows would at least wait for the anticipated release of Windows Mobile 7 before jumping ship. Android isn't all that much better then 6.5 as it is. It just is more up to date.

 

[9Nails]

I'm right there with this line of thinking Paynetrain007, but shouldn't HTC be beta testing Windows 7 Mobile products by now?

The one mistake that Microsoft made with Mobile is in responsiveness. I think Microsoft is making a mistake in trying to make the phone a scaled down PC desktop. That leave a step-child feeling that the device is inferior. The fact that it's available on a hundred or so phones worldwide is a giant plus over what is offered by Fruit company. (You know who they are!) So Windows Mobile has an advantage where lots of phones with variety are available to select from. Physical keyboards, memory expansion slots, larger / removable batteries, you get the idea of combination's being a plus for Win Mobile. But it is in tuning the OS for the device where they're lacking. Hopefully Mobile 7 can be more focused and responsive, but if HTC is scaling back, I'd be worried at MS headquarters by what HTC might is saying now.

 

[vangrat]

I look at it this way, HTC scales back to say "Android is what we are looking for." Microsoft go "Oh crap people realise that our UI sucks." Microsoft then does exactly what they have done in the past, pull their thumbs out and make a moderately decent product. Now it wont be the best product on the market, but it will be the easiest to aquire, update, and generally easy to modify (probably not as easy as android). However because it will be a MS product people will flock to it.

But, and there is always a but, if Google can combine the availability of Windows with the applications of the Fruit then they just might have something.

Time will tell.

 

[Guest]

HTC has done the right thing by phasing out Windows Mobile. Everyone is going Android.

Most of the main analysts, such as Gartner, predict that Windows Mobile will be discontinue within the next year. That's pretty bad for anyone who bought a Windows Mobile phone, and will be left with a useless brick without any software. Come to think of it, that's pretty much how it is for Windows Mobile right now, as there are very few applications being developed for it.

Meanwhile, Android is the fastest growing phone platform, already with over 10,000 apps and growing rapidly.

 

[Vrmithrax]

Calm down, calm down. 5 of the 8 new models will be Android. That's just over half, not a landslide majority. HTC is still staying in the Windows Mobile game, but right now Android 2.0 is out and hot (and open source) so they like the flexibility that it gives them. Plus, many times the deciding factor on a phone's OS can be linked to what type of phone orders have been put in by specific vendors - if Verizon calls them and says "we need 2 new Android phones in 2010" then guess what type of OS they'll be building for?

Once Win7 Mobile finally hits, and proves itself stable, maybe the tide will turn back towards that OS... Or maybe it will never hit the market, or be so flaky and bloated that it's not even an option? Either way, by the time that's all ready to go, HTC will be thinking about 2011, and I'm sure the ratio will differ. The point is, this is their plan for next year, not the next century, so take it with a grain of salt.

 

[compdata]

It will be interesting to see if Google can handle the complexity of Android on so many new devices and if they can avoid the complexity explosion that tends to go with this. I would be interested to see MS's response in the next couple years to this as well. May the best OS with the least arbitrary restrictions win!

 

[Guest]

HTC needs to get its act together and provide decent support for older models. They are great at getting the latest Android OS ported to new hardware but never provide the fixes to get important features woking on older models. One glaring example is the consistent lack of a working WPA Enterprise networking support that has been a feature in Android since 1.5 and still doesn't work.

 

[Guest]

I've played with android for a bit and found nothing spectacular or extraordinary about it. It didn't seem to be any more or less performant or have any feature sets missing from any of the other competing mobile platforms. Is it just because its something new? Or something by google? Whats the excitement about? I don't understand.

 

[Guest]

If like me you have recently bought a HTC windows mobile phone, the feeling is of abandonment,they are moving over to Android and don't offer any sort of upgrade path for people who have bought something already. They just advertise whatever their latest offering is as "the latest and greatest" , and show no support for their past customers. Yes I wish I'd bought an android phone but I won't be buying anything else from HTC.