Why don’t we buy HTC smartphones anymore?
You have a wide choice of smartphones to buy and almost every brand has its reasons for choosing them. HTC used to be such a manufacturer, but not anymore. How did that happen?
Once successful, always successful, right? Apple has become an indispensable part of the smartphone world since the groundbreaking first generation iPhone and Samsung still has an important position in the telephone world thanks to their success in the telephone world. However, there is a world of difference between being successful and staying successful and a perfect example of this is a telephone builder that we have secretly forgotten a bit. We are of course talking about HTC smartphones.
First Android
The Chinese company HTC, which, by the way, simply stands for High Tech Computer Company, was in fact the chickens in the field of smartphones. For example, the HTC Dream was the first Android smartphone and so the ties with Google were close. This resulted in a series of popular HTC smartphones in different shapes and sizes. If you know the smartphone world a bit around 2010, then you probably know HTC.
Innovation
But even after that it continued and HTC always innovated well with their smartphones. Aluminum frame, HTC was one of the first to use it. Collaborations with audio companies, in this case Beats, for cool sound in your smartphone. Good cameras with, for example, portrait mode, HTC already had in 2014. The HTC One series, their flagships, were very popular in their time. HTC also contributed to the building of the Nexus smartphones, more or less the predecessor of the Google Pixel.
faded
Yet we hear almost nothing from HTC or their smartphones. The company’s profits and shares plummeted like a brick, you hardly see anyone with an HTC anymore and it is actually not a serious option anymore if you are looking for an Android smartphone. What happened?
First, HTC has never done well in terms of marketing. HTC’s sold themselves in their heyday, but when the competition became fierce, HTC didn’t give enough reasons to go for their products. Marketing campaigns that did exist were weird.
Also the naming was not always logical. The HTC One sounds like the first, but that was just a model that came further in the line-up. They then went on to combine One with another song, so that at some point you got the One M9, for example. Then it became a jumble of weird names and it was actually too late when the U-series tried to make some sense.
There are a few other reasons, including disappointing devices, phones that don’t live up to the hype created, telecom companies no longer sell the phones, and so on. That’s why we see little to no HTC smartphones anymore.
Secretly successful
However, the story goes a little further. Secretly we will see HTC again. First in the world of VR. HTC was also there early with a collaboration between HTC and Vive. They are just as well on their way to making something good there as they are with their phones.
And smartphones from recent years are technically still ‘powered by HTC’. Google invested a huge sum of money in the company and bought a large part of their design studio. Those designers were then used by Google to design the Pixel phones. Just like before, actually. But then with HTC only in the small print.
As mentioned, there are still smartphones from HTC. You can simply buy these via the brand’s website. Should you do it? We dare not say that.
