HTC President: On Windows Phone and How iPhone isn’t Cool Anymore
September 13, 2011 No Comments
Martin Fichter, the acting president of HTC America, had tons to say at the Mobile Future Forward conference in downtown Seattle. His thoughts ranged from Google buying Motorola, the current patents wars to Windows Phone then onto how the iPhone isn’t cool anymore.
Google Purchasing Motorola
“It is good for the whole ecosystem that Google owns IP that they didn’t own before. That’s very good for the Android ecosystem because maybe everyone was going into this starry-eyed and happy (saying): ‘Ok, there’s a free operating system that we can all work with.’
“I don’t know how Google and Motorola will work together in the future…. We will see how that pans out. For us, as I said before, we will look at our options, and we will look at whatever needs to be done to be successful.”
Patent Wars
“I think disruption is the perfect word for that because it disrupts my day, every day. The problem we are having as an industry, from a very broad perspective, is that energy that should go into developing new technologies and new user experiences goes into fighting off patent wars.”
Windows Phone
“I think Windows Phone 7 is probably a bit hampered by the whole energy in the industry right now for 4G. All the carriers are pushing their 4G networks and with Windows Phone 7 not yet supporting that …”
“so I am quite happy to see how Mango has improved all of that.”
HTC Titan: “I am very happy about these phones, because the integration of Windows is just beautiful.”
iPhone
“I brought my daughter back to college — she’s down in Portland at Reed — and I talked to a few of the kids on her floor. And none of them has an iPhone because they told me: ‘My dad has an iPhone.’ There’s an interesting thing that’s going on in the market. The iPhone becomes a little less cool than it was.”
There’s tons of interesting things that were said here. First of all he starts with the typical response to Google attempting to purchase Motorola but then starts on the defensive on how they are ready to make a move if they have to. Probably either dropping Android all together and going to Windows Phone or purchasing their own OS.
Martin also talks about how he thinks the iPhone is getting less ‘cool’ with many more older folks having it than young adults. I can definitely agree with that statement since I see more adults everyday with iPhones and more of the younger generation going with Samsung and HTC,
The most interesting part of this interview though was his thoughts on Windows Phone. He prety much puts most of the blame on Windows Phone not selling well to lack of 4G. I really can’t believe I never thought about this because he is absolutely right – for the most part. We are at an age where carriers in the US are battling one another with their different 4G technologies. With Windows Phone lacking 4G, it wasn’t used as a weapon and a poster child for the carriers. Let’s see how things change since Windows Phone now has 4G thanks to the Mango update.
You can read more of the interview at Geekwire in their awesome article
Source: Geekwire
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