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Will Htc Abandon Windows?
The mobile community knows the Taiwan-based HTC to be the leader in smartphones running the Windows Mobile operating system. But the last 18 months saw the High Tech Computer Corporation slowly but surely releasing more handsets in the Android platform starting with the Htc Dream it has provided T-Mobile and rebranded as the G1, the world's first Android smartphone.
Since then, HTC has once again taken hold of the smartphone market as the leading smartphone maker using Android. It has recently OEM'ed for Google its first mobile phone in the Nexus One running its own Android. Its mobile phone line-up for 2010 unveiled at the recent CeBIT in Hanover and the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona revealed HTC's newfound product mix strategy that no has some new remarkable Android handsets notably the HTC Desire together with the HTC Legend and a solitary BREW mobile HTC Smart as well as a rumoured HTC Incredible still on the drawing board.
Where Goes Windows
But the Windows Mobile platform still has a year or so of life remaining and will run upcoming HTC handsets like the HTC HD Mini, the Htc Touch Pro2 (Tilt2 for AT&T), the HTC Touch Diamond 2 and the rumored HTC Trophy in the works. HTC may not be faithfully monogamous with the Windows Mobile OS that has catapulted it to become the world's largest smartphone maker after Nokia but the realities behind the impending demise of the Windows Mobile has not escaped HTC planners.
HTC has focused on mobile devices running on Windows ever since the company's inception in 1997 and has been the favored OEM for companies like Palm, Dell, Fujitsu-Siemens, Sharp, i-mate and HO/Compaq rebranding and distributing Windows-based HTC products as their own as well as making Windows handsets for mobile phone carriers Orange T-Mobile, O2, Vodafone, Cingular and NTT DoCoMo.
But since 2004 when the platform saw its best year with 23% share of the smartphone market, Windows Mobiles has been loosing market shares every year ending up at 14% in 2008 before getting halved in just one year alone to a mere 7.9% by the 3rd quarter of 2009, according to Gartner Research. This has been mostly attributable to the rise of the new smartphone darling – the Android, in 2009.
Microsoft is now clinging on straws to survive. It has entered a deal with the third largest mobile phone maker LG to license 50 new Window handsets for 20010 but that is lost as major Windows smartphone makers like Samsung has announced last November it will be abandoning the OS in favor of its Bada in 2010 as well as Acer shifting its new mobile phone business to Android this year. Palm, Inc has likewise thrown its support entirely to Android.
The Coast is Clear
It looks like Android is the way to go for many smartphone makers while HTC remains hedging it bets on it as it could be hoping the new Windows Phone 7 can give an upgrade path to its latest breed of Windows Mobile 6.5 handsets. But even that is big question mark as Microsoft already made clear its new WinPho7 is a clean slate.
There may be problems for Android as well in terms of upgradeability of existing versions but the coast is clear for smartphone makers to latch on Android as the rising star for the smartphone business at least for 2010.
About the Author
You can get more information on HTC at moby1.co.uk. They compare contracts for all HTC phones. You can also see which are the best Pay As You Go Phones available.
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