HTC, a company that builds smartphones based on Android and Windows Phone 7 operating systems, is mulling a purchase of a new mobile OS, HTC CEO Cher Wang told the Economic Observer of China.
“We have given it thought and we have discussed it internally, but we will not do it on impulse,” Wang said in the interview.
While such a purchase is far from a done deal, the fact that HTC is even considering it is telling. Nokia has close ties with Microsoft and its WP7 platform; HP folded its webOS business, and Google recently purchased Motorola Mobility. This leaves HTC — which has grown to be one of the biggest phone manufacturers in the world — exposed and dependent on two mobile operating systems whose owners’ priorities lie elsewhere.
It’s no wonder Samsung — another phone manufacturer that’s been very successful with Android-based smartphones — still pushes its own mobile OS, Bada, although it has had little success actually selling Bada-based devices.
If HTC wants a new mobile operating system, perhaps as a “spare” similar to Samsung’s Bada strategy, there are a number of avenues the company can take. It could try to develop one in-house, purchase an already finished product (such as HP’s webOS) or perhaps find a middle ground by extending the functionality of its own Sense, which acts as an additional UI layer on Android devices.
No comments:
Post a Comment