If Apple created the first round of disruption to the
business-as-usual lethargy infecting the cellphone industry then Google appears poised to bring round two. When looking around at choices, it's the Android OS backed by Google's cloud-based services and the
50k app-strong Android Market we usually find underpinning the
sexiest and
most powerful hardware on the market. And guess who's making the hardware? Right, HTC. Now HTC -- thanks to its recently introduced Desire, Legend, HD Mini, Smart, EVO 4G and Droid Incredible -- says it expects record revenues of $1.6 billion in Q2 on sales of 4.5 million handsets, up from 3.3 million handsets sold in Q1 and ahead of analyst expectations. Cheng Hui-ming, HTC chief financial officer, credits the bump to the "growing popularity of the Android platform in Europe and the US". One can only imagine what HTC sales will do when its long-standing Microsoft partner releases Windows Phone 7 OS later this year.
posted April 29th 2010 4:40AM
I love HTC and those that are bagging them re their phones in the States I hope you are aware that there is a fairly large market outside the301 million people in the USA. EG 1.4 Billion in China, 1.17 Billion in India, 300 million+ in Indonesia, 180 Million in Japan etc etc.
Ahem... having said that I have an iphone as well as my HTC
@CultOfOne Well, the "unsignificant" US market still invites Nokia to release their phones in the US unlocked. And this is Nokia, a company that only has a little brand awareness in the US. Companies like Apple also ship their products worldwide, with iPhones having tri-band UMTS. But no, d0uchebag HTC intentionally put dual-band UMTS on the Legend and Desire to ensure there's no US 3G support. Plus a lot of their phones in the US are carrier locked and/or CDMA.
Wont be me in those profits. Sorry HTC, im going HPalm.
@KIVan
I am very interested in that as well. Unfortunately I still have to keep my BB for a bit, and then it will be Evo, Hpalm and the new Nokia N9 running MeeGo on a sick new SoC.
Wow! There is still loads of money in the market to be made, sadly we pay for it all....
There are only two competitors for the most popular smartphone OS, and that's Android and Windows. HTC is betting on both, and no wonder they're getting results.
@Pies
That. is. not. true. at. all. Android & OSX are leading the way, well after Symbina^3 ( Symbian^4 & MeeGo). Windows Phone, I still have to see to believe. However, nothing will take away Symbian's dominance. Even in the poor state it has been in, it has kept marketshare. They are improving it dramatically, and MeeGo will be better by far.
There is no sane reason to assume, that this will be different.
@JFH
One more thing, see how Android, Windows & OSX are all embroiled over patents. WebOS and Symbian & MeeGo, do not have that issue. I think that will shape the market to some extent as well.
@JFH iPhoneOS (I assume that is what you mean by OSX) and WebOS aren't currently competing in this space because neither can be licenced by manufacturers. So for either one to win all other smartphone manufacturers together would have to stop making smartphones, which I think will not happen.
As for Symbian, I don't see it winning, but ok, at least it does compete in
the space.
@Pies
Just because they cannot be licensed does not mean it is impossible to become the most popular. If Nokia used a proprietary OS now iso open source, they would have the most popular OS on earth (Not US)
Also, you do not see it happen, but it is already the case. The question is, will that dominance change (as symbian is lacking some eye candy) enough to turn the tables, or will Symbian^3 be enough of a stopgap to wait for S^4 & MeeGo, who both, easily, outperform anything out there now. I like S^3, but the real push will be S^4 & MeeGo. (yes others will innovate but I think, from a technical perspective, they will get trumped, severely)
I am pretty platform agnostic, work with a BB myself (sigh). It is just that, in the US, there is not a realistic image of what Symbian is, can do, or will be.
@JFH In my view it _is_ impossible for a single phone manufacturer to sell the vast majority of smartphones, especially if you assume that in the future most if not all phones will become smartphones. Do you really believe that Nokia, SonyEric, Moto, Dell, HTC and all the rest will just stop selling smartphones?
As for Nokia being the largest smartphone manufacturer in the world -- please. In my view just because something is running an OS called Symbian doesn't mean it's a smartphone. And currently I just don't believe Symbian will gain popularity among other major smartphone manufacturers, sorry.
@Pies
I think you do not know the first thing about mobile operating systems. Or definitions used in the mobile space. Symbian (S^3 now) has been the very definition of a smartphone operating system, and has been for a long time, even before others showed up. That means it is a smartphone OS. You might equate transition effects with smart phones, but that is bull to say the least. Symbian is, also, the OS with the most functionality, bar none. None. Your view in that sense is quite irrelevant.
By your own reasoning, if all phones will be smartphones, and that would be a level playing field, why would that not be possible, given the fact that at some point in time Nokia had 70% of the global market share. I am not saying it will be Nokia again (not 70% at least) but_it_is possible.
Aslo, I am expecting it to be sooner that S^4 & MeeGo arrive than other manufacturers quadrupling their sales. I am basing this on numbers. Nokia, sells more smartphones, than Apple, RIM & all android phones, combined. Also, Nokia only count, real, S60 running, decently specced phones as smartphones. Not the cheaper ones. Number per quarter are approximately 22 Million smartphones & 85 Million "dumb" phones. Each quarter.
You might argue, well the UI sucks on S60 and you would have had a point. Although much less so now that S^3 arrived, and your point will be gone when S^4 arrives. MeeGo will utterly change the game, but that is a different discussion.
I do not care who wins, but I fail to see why you ignore something that is so obviously such a strong contender in this space.
@JFH
Sorry for the errors in my spelling.
@JFH I would define a smartphone as a device focused on running 3rd party apps chosen and downloaded by the user, whereas a dumbphone is focused on running first party apps included with the device. I'm by no means an expert on Nokia devices, but from what I read many devices that Nokia sees as smartphones don't meet my definition.
That isn't to say I'm against Nokia or Symbian, but from what I know Symbian currently has no traction outside of Nokia whereas Android has plenty. I also think that other phone manufacturers like the idea of running a Google OS better than running a Nokia OS simply because Nokia is their competitor and Google isn't (much).
@Pies
Thanks for your response. It is interesting to see your viewpoint. My response:
"I would define a smartphone as a device focused on running 3rd party apps chosen and downloaded by the user, whereas a dumbphone is focused on running first party apps included with the device."
Installing apps is indeed one of the features of smartphones, and it is something that Symbian has been able to do, for years, before Iphones or App Stores. There have been scores of apps, very large numbers, available for symbian devices since forever. What was different, is that they were available from companies directly, or free, but not put together in a single place. Apple has the app store, and that is it. Nokia still has loads of free repositories, and Ovi as an app store. So, there are actually many more apps for Symbian than just the Ovi store. All of those 22 million phones sold each quarter can download those apps, which means in one year Nokia will sell 88 million smartphones that can purchase, easily, sometimes even through operator billing (no creditcard needed for peeps in india or even here in europe)
"That isn't to say I'm against Nokia or Symbian, but from what I know Symbian currently has no traction outside of Nokia whereas Android has plenty. I also think that other phone manufacturers like the idea of running a Google OS better than running a Nokia OS simply because Nokia is their competitor and Google isn't (much) ""
Interesting perspective. Actually, Symbian has 48% of the Global smartphone market. Which means, that the marketshare of symbian devices not built by Nokia, is roughly the same size of the entire Android contingent (back of napkin numbers here). I am not saying either one is better here either. Its just that, there is traction. There has been traction for ages. Sony Ericsson & Samsung have released phones with symbian this year..
On google versus Nokia. I think, people will start to realize, that symbian is much more open source than Android. Nokia does not own symbian. They bought them out, and gave the code away the next day. Other companies can actually influence the direction of Symbian, as opposed to Android. For now, it think Android has more buzz, because of UI, and that is fair. It is also the part where Symbian will improve dramatically. Symbian is a much more efficient OS actually.
I think Android, much more than Iphone OS, is pushing forward and that is good. I also think that Symbian^3, Symbian^4 will be worthy competition. MeeGo is in a class of its own and a different story altogether.
M
Unless Apple expands their market with other carriers, they may lose the battle just because of AT&T. How is it that AT&T did not realize what a golden egg they were holding?!
Happy for HTC. They deserve their spoils for the years of effort in the smartphone field. I tip my hat. (and own two of their phones)
and if u bring the EVO to europe you'll make EVEN MORE MONEY :)
so what r u waiting for HTC???
bring it!
The largest supporter of new technologies and smart phones well ahead of other companies makes a large profit....shocking!! OEM's learn from HTC, we want new technologies, we will pay for them, quit the ancient 2 year roll out process. I want to see 2 gig professors by this time next year.....
@StViper
Yes that would be sweet. Educater and researchers running at 2 gig. ;)
And the stuff they make is nice, but not really ahead of anything.
@phoenix004
Care to elaborate?
Not sure if I follow your endgame.
Sounds like you have used many HTC phones.
What use is a 50K strong app market when it doesn't have the Golfshots GPS program?
HTC RULES! ! ! ! ! !
Sent from my Nexus One using Sense and Swype
@cherryboom
"Down rank me if you want."
Done. I think many people will want to too.
I WOULD like you HTC TO BRING A GOOD ASS ANDROID PHONE T0 AT&T please nothing cheap looking or shitty looking. I'm dying for one of your phones right now. Please I'm begging you.