HTC is Getting it Done

HTC, founded in 1997, was once an original equipment manufacturer, building devices-to-order for Orange, 02, T-Mobile (News - Alert), Vodafone, Cingular, Verizon, Sprint and NTT DoCoMo, using the Microsoft mobile operating system. However since June 2006, it has been building its own retail brand, and the firm has become a huge proponent of the Android (News - Alert) operating system. That likely is one reason Apple has filed a lawsuit against HTC, alleging patent infringements. Irrespective of the merits of the case, Apple might hope to blunt Android's growth.

 

So far, though, one would have to say that HTC is succeeding in its bid to join the top ranks of mobile phone manufacturers, especially at the high end of the market.

 

In March 2010, T-Mobile began selling the HTC HD2, a Microsoft-powered device very similar to the Verizon HTC Incredible. Sprint, meanwhile, has just launched the HTC EVO, the first 4G device in America, again using a similar, but not identical, set of form factor and hardware features as the HD2 and Incredible.

 

According to Compete.com, web traffic to the HTC EVO page on Sprint nearly doubled from March 2010 to April 2010, and in April Sprint saw nearly eight percent of its prospects visiting the page.

 

Sprint also saw a 33 percent month-over-month increase in prospect traffic from February to March 2010. That was the largest month-over-month increase in March among the big-four carriers, Compete.com says.

 

Sprint also increased its share of prospects among the big four from 21 percent to 24 percent.

 

Clearly, Sprint saw quite a bit of a spike in search referrals from February to March, and then March to April, jumping from about 1.75 million to over 2.5 million in the two-month period, says Becky Bitzenhofer, Compete.com blogger.

 

About five out of the top 20 search terms from March 10 to May 30 2010 were related to 4G or the Evo. The Evo was the only specific phone to crack the top 20 in terms of referrals to Sprint.com, and it did so three separate times, she says.

 

'If what we've seen in terms of interest over the past two months is anything indication, I would put money on the Evo being a major player in the smartphone arena, and an overall successful launch for Sprint,' says Bitzenhofer.

 

Success also would reflect HTC's rise as a branded supplier of smartphones.

 

Piper Jaffray analyst T. Michael Walkley says that HTC is taking share from rivals and bolstering the fortunes of both the Android operating system as well as Qualcomm's Snapdragon processor.

 

'Our April and early May checks indicated strong North America share gains for HTC with strong initial sales of the HTC Incredible at Verizon, combined with solid sales of the HTC Hero at Sprint and HTC HD2 and My Touch 3G at T-Mobile,' says Walkley.

 

He added, "We believe consumers overwhelmingly selected HTC based Android and Windows Mobile based devices due to its customizable user interface, processing power with Qualcomm's Snapdragon 1 GHz processor and sleek designs.'

 

Walkley thinks BlackBerry (News - Alert) is likely losing share to HTC at AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile. HTC is making gigantic inroads into the U.S. market, and has become the preferred OEM not just for Windows Mobile handsets, but Android also, he notes.

 

In the first quarter of 2010, HTC had about a five-percent share of smartphone sales, according to Canalys. That means it has a ways to go before it is in the same league as Nokia, with 39 percent share in the quarter, Research in Motion (News - Alert) with 19 percent and Apple with 16 percent.

 

Still, HTC, Apple and Motorola were the only smartphone suppliers seeing 100-percent-plus growth in the first quarter, year over year.