Here's to Change: HTC

3 years ago, I would not be caught dead using an HTC device. I hated that multi tone, multi textured backs that HTC so love, seemingly inherited from the vile remnants of their Dopod acquisition. They always had decent hardware specifications, but the design just never appealed to me. Just take the 2 phones above for example, the Titan II up top and the Velocity 4G below. Both were announced in the January of 2012. Both featuring design and colour scheme going back to the HD2, the Nexus One, hell, I even see some Dopod in it. But a month later, something amazing happened…


HTC announced the HTC One X. This was the device that changed my opinion of the company. For the first time, they had a device that I wanted to buy. A device that made the Samsung Galaxy S3 felt cheaper than it already is.

From then on, year after year, I have preferred HTC’s flagship over Samsung’s. And while I did not get either the S5 or HTC One M8 this year, my choice would still be the M8 if I had to choose. And from the reviews and accolades that HTC has been receiving for the One series of devices, many people seem to agree with me as well.

Not only that, HTC’s Sense UI has vastly improved as well. I have always been a fan of the vanilla Android look and feel, or the Nexus experience if you like. But with Sense 6, I think for the first time I actually prefer it over a custom ROM or AOSP. I converted my HTC One M7 to the GPE (which felt poorly optimised), and tried CyanogenMod 11 on it (which actually felt more optimised). But eventually what I ended up using was HTC’s Sense 6 UI (which actually felt better than both GPE and CM11). And that’s a huge deal for me.

In fact I just bought a HTC Desire 816 to play with earlier, and so far, I think I already like it more than the also reasonably priced Moto G running near stock Android.

Before the One M8 was officially announced, I photoshopped a leaked render into a design that I think would be cleaner looking. That post on G+ has gotten 699 +1s, 35 reshares, and 145 comments sparking many interesting conversations and discussions. So clearly people like HTC (at least that’s what they say on the internet).

A friend who is a long time iPhone user just switched to the HTC One M8. And this is not some tech savvy user, this is your average consumer, liking what HTC has done with the One M8. According to her, "sick of iTunes, wants to try in android, likes HTC’s camera and audio." (Weirdly i see more female HTC One users than male) When she got the M8, she happily/excitedly announced it on her facebook.

So… HTC has products that people clearly like and enjoy using (myself included), but why are they still struggling? Despite managing to finally make a profit the previous quarter, people are already saying that it will likely be their best result this year and they will likely continue to hover around the break-even mark.


So that begs the question, “What the hell is going on?” Is it down to poor marketing? poor management? Or is it the poor impressions people got from early HTC devices? Or is Samsung just too strong in the market? I have no idea.

What I do know, is that I want HTC to continue making great phones. They are one of the manufacturers who I think is doing a great job at hardware design as well as software. But to do that they need to keep selling phones, something that they seem to be unable to do much of.

So this posts goes out to HTC. Kudos for your dedication to the mobile industry and pushing many “Firsts” in the industry. The first Windows smartphone in 2002, the HTC Canary. The first Android smartphone in 2008, the HTC Dream. The first Nexus device, the HTC Nexus One.

Here’s to Change. And here’s to many more years in the mobile industry (hopefully).