HTC exec lauds licensing agreement with Apple
Ray Yam is the president of HTC China, and he recently said in an interview with the Economic Observer of China that the company's recent licensing agreement with Apple will "pay off" sometime this new year in 2013. HTC and Apple, you may remember, finally settled a longtime patent disagreement back in November, and Yam says the company is ready and eager to move on. In the interview, he called the lawsuits "a sword hanging over our heads," and said that being free of the disagreement will open up the company to "take broader steps" and "put more energy into innovation."
Analysts agree, saying that HTC's access to the licensed part of Apple's patent library means the company has a much better chance at navigating the market of new smartphones going forward. Previously, says one analyst, the company would have to have spent money on workarounds and coming up with alternative solutions to these patents, but now, HTC can move forward onto new innovations rather than trying to remake the past.
That's good news for HTC, obviously, and it's good news even for us Apple fans, as it means more competition on innovations in the future. Apple certainly hasn't shared every secret it knows, but at least this agreement means an end to the back-and-forth accusations this case had running in the past.
[via BGR]
