Android and Windows Mobile 'complementary', claims HTC

T-Mobile G1 manufacturer HTC plans to develop more handsets based on Android. It maintain this will not affect its Windows Mobile business - the Google platform and Microsoft's are “complementary”, it claimed. According to a report by DigiTimes, John Wang, Chief Marketing Officer at HTC, said that both systems have their …

[Stuart]

Windows Tax?

Backing both horses? I presume this means that HTC does not pay the Windows Tax on all PDAs but only those that actually have Windows. Will this mean, as with eeepc market that new exciting LOWER PRICE non-MS stuff will come to market and that to stay competitive MS will have to offer a WM 'Classic' variant? So Linux/MS lovers both win!

I presume the current Windows Tax is around 30GBP/50USD per copy of WM6 to the manufactuers. Anyone confirm?

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe it's just me, but..

"Windows is X and Y, but Google is more flexible" doesn't seem to explain how Windows CE complements Android.

[Matt Smart]

Damn

I was rather hoping the highly covetable Touch HD would appear with Android on it, but no sign of that at the moment...

All of this gets me thinking. Shouldn't we have devil/angel Sergey Brin/Larry Page icons?

[Anonymous Coward]

No one messes with Ballmer

This is called missing the bus, or perhaps more like getting off the bus.

They have been WM for donkeys years and have made little headway against the big boys. Here's is change to break into the mainstream and they look the other way - very smart.

No one knows the future but it doesn't take a genius to guess that Android can be huge.

Of course it may all be PR and being nice to MS. We all know what happens when MS gets pissed, do you really want to piss of highly strung Ballmer?

[Surur]

WM has been good to HTC

@Stuart

"I presume the current Windows Tax is around 30GBP/50USD per copy of WM6 to the manufactuers. Anyone confirm?"

Its actually between $8 and $15, depending on configuration. Obviously more expensive that free, and maybe the second most expensive part of the phone after the screen, but not the terrible. In return they dont have to pay an exchange activesync license, wont have to license a document reader and editor, wont have to develop their own desktop syncing software and get compatibility with 18 000 applications, and also get indemnified against being sued for patent infringement for mobile OS features.

@Anonymous Coward

"This is called missing the bus, or perhaps more like getting off the bus.

They have been WM for donkeys years and have made little headway against the big boys. Here's is change to break into the mainstream and they look the other way - very smart."

HTC has gone from nothing to a $12 billion dollar company based on their Windows Mobile products with nearly $5 billion in sales this year. In Q2 08 they were the 3rd biggest smartphone brand worldwide, ahead of Sony Ericsson, Sharp, Fujitsu and even the fruit phone.

HTC outgrew the DOW and NASDAQ indices by nearly 1000 percent over the last 10 years.

http://markets.ft.com/cgi-bin/upload.dll/file.png?z0485100az23da84244354418fb17206136702d54a

http://markets.ft.com/tearsheets/performance.asp?s=tw%3A2498

Considering the speed of their growth and their performance they are actually very undervalued.

[Surur]

Here's why HTC still loves WM

http://wmpoweruser.com/?p=1177

HTC to sell 13-15 million smartphones in 2008, doing very well

HTC, the premier Windows Mobile manufacturer, has estimated that it will sell between 13 and 15 million smartphones this year. The vast majority of these devices will be Windows Mobile smartphones, with analysts estimating only 200 000 Android devices being sold by them, less than 2% of HTC’s production.

HTC is to send only 2 million to the Asia-Pacific region, with the majority going to Western Europe and USA. This balance may change however, with Conexus Mobile Alliance, an alliance of 10 Asian telecom companies with a combined subscriber base of over 200 million users, including giants like NTT DoCoMo, being rumoured by industry sources to be planning to jointly procure smartphones from HTC. Apparently this follows positive recommendations by Taiwanese mobile phone carriers who have already taken on HTC’s devices.

The phones HTC sell in Asia are planned to be own-branded. This follows moves by HTC to shed it white-box ODM image, and this has apparently been very successful, with the HTC brand now purportedly worth more than $1 billion. HTC recently managed to score the 3rd biggest smartphone brand position in Q2 2008, and have said their sales have been unaffected by the arrival of the iPhone 3G.

[Anonymous Coward]

Careful @Surur

"Considering the speed of their growth and their performance they are actually very undervalued."

The FSA would be interested in your comment - you need to make sure that what you have written is your opinion and not a "statement". In "your opinion" they "seem to be" undervalued. The value of a company at any point in time is what the market is willing to pay for it - the value went down in earlier trading today.

[fluffy]

WM is definitely still useful for enterprise

Many enterprise installations only support ActiveSync and require the high level of control that Windows Mobile gives them with device lockdown and the like. iPhone and Palm's respective ActiveSync implementations are pretty piss-poor and Android's simply doesn't exist yet, and likely never will, since even if someone writes an ActiveSync conduit between Google Apps and Exchange, no IT administrator in their right mind would even consider supporting anything which puts potentially-confidential information under Google's control.

Android is definitely a compelling platform for end-users who aren't tied to an enterprise system, but currently the only smartphone platforms which are compelling for the enterprise are WM and Blackberry, and to a MUCH lesser extent, iPhone (which at least allows for remote wipe).