Displaying items by tag: HTC

As expected HTC presented their Windows Phone 8 devices yesterday. Windows Phone 8X and 8S will both be branded as Microsoft Signature Windows Phones. The 8X model will feature a 4.3-inch Super LCD II display with 720p resolution, a 1.5 GHz dual core Snapdragon processor and 1GB of RAM. As with most smartphones these days the 8x will have an 8 Mpix rear camera with BSI sensor and LED flash, while the front will be 2.1 Mpix with the ability to record 1080p HD video. A nice thing to know is that unlike Nokia's new phones the 8X can record video with stereo sound. The 8x will also have Gorilla Glass and optical lamination touchscreen. Storage capacity is 16GB which cannot be expanded with microSD cards. NFC, WiFi a/b/g/n and LTE (NA only) or HSPA+/DC-HSDPA (EMEA) are also supported. To take care of sound they brought in Beats Audio that gives the phone decent multimedia boost.

HTC has been sending out invites for their presentation happening tomorrow. A few weeks ago they were pretty mysterious about whole thing. There have been much speculation about what will they release and the current consensus is a new Windows 8 devices. Today they decided to give a hint via their Facebook page, in the form of a picture that shows what appears to be a corner of the device they will announce. It is possible the device could be The HTC 8x a.k.a. HTC Accord. We have had a few leaks on this new device with several pictures, but nothing is yet confirmed.

Apple’s iPhone 5 should launch tomorrow, but it might be a launch that is short lived if Samsung and HTC have anything to say about it. Both companies plan to aggressively pursue Apple over the use of Long Term Evolution (LTE) in their products HTC already has a complaint into the ITC.  To make matters worse for Apple (who is trying the invalidation tactic now) Judge Thomas Pender has ruled that HTC’s patents are most likely valid saying “Clear and convincing means something to me. I have to be pretty darn certain a U.S. patent is invalid”. Apple has also tried to claim that HTC only bought the patents to sue Apple. Judge Pender was quick with the reply: “I don't care if they bought these patents to sue you or not. They are a property right”.

Since practically every single smartphone powerhouse has announced their big events, HTC just had to join the masses. They have decided to keep everything veiled by mystery, but some rumors are that it could include Windows Phone 8. The event will take place in New York City starting at 11:30 AM EST. The announcement states “Join HTC to see  what's next”, and if rumors of a WP8 device are true they could fall in the shadow of Nokia’s new Lumia devices that will be presented tomorrow, also in New York. There are three HTC devices that are expected to be revealed, from entry-level to new flagship range.

By the end of 2012 HTC will try to place new device on the tablet market in cooperation with Chinese manufacturer Pegatron Technology. After they failed to make significant sales with their 7“ Flyer and 10.1“ Jetstream tablets there is a lot of suspicion about the potential success of this idea. Also HTC tablets were not included in the first wave of production partners for Microsoft's Windows RT tablets, making it even more risky. The main reason for bad sales was probably a price that was too much compared to performance.

Judge Lucy Koh has asked that Samsung and Apple executive meet for a third time. Her request for a peace talk is coming with only about a day and half of Samsung’s presentation in the bag. This move seems a little odd to us considering her defiance in allowing for key pieces of Samsung evidence to be shown to the jury and her refusal to throw out some Apple patents based on Prior Art.

As we continue to follow the Samsung V Apple trial we happened upon something rather funny today that is about the case, but also shows something much wider in scope that a battle between Samsung and Apple. We have talked about how the market pushes products and how people tend to identify items with one brand or another. There are many examples of this that we can talk about and they are often welcomed by the companies in question as it puts their brand name out there more than anyone else’s. We can point you to many examples of this; Band-Aid, Kool-Aid, Kleenex, Ziploc, Xerox, Ditto, Zippo, Superglue and yes iPod, iPhone and iPad.

As we near the launch of two new phones the rumors are building again around a Facebook phone (dubbed the Facephone by many). This is a rumor is something we have covered on more than one occasion and while we still think that it would be a flop (for many reasons) the rumors are interesting when we take a look at their origins and the companies they involve. The latest one involves HTC as the potential partner with Android as the base OS. It comes on the heels of new information about the team of developers that Facebook has picked up from Apple and Palm.

The US Patent system, both the methods used for filing and also the methods used to protect IP is becoming a joke. We have seen as patents are being filed in greater frequency with very little other than wording to differentiate them with other products, but broad enough to make sure the filing company can still sue someone else that makes a similar product. On top of that we have judges that are not qualified technically to preside over the cases they are being overwhelmed with. To say that the system is broken would be like calling a nuclear explosion a “bang”.

Microsoft knows that it cannot compete directly in the smart phone OS marketplace. If you need any real proof of this just look at the sales numbers and the adoption rates of iOS and Android over Windows Pone in the business market. The problem is that Microsoft did not innovate fast enough as the market shifted. They had the leading product, but once there was real competition in the form of iOS and Android they failed to capitalize on it and instead embarked on a series of products that hurt them very badly dropping them down to a low of just under 2% for market share.