HTC, maker of some of the most popular Android smartphones and designer of Sense UI, is considering purchasing its own mobile OS. No hard decisions have been made, but it is interesting that it is under consideration, especially with the ease with which Android can be slapped onto any of its future smartphones. (Of course, there is that pesky business of Microsoft profiting from all this.)
Ever since HP decided that it would halt all webOS hardware production, and effectively kill of the OS, rumors started floating that Samsung or HTC would purchase it. For HTC, however, there is no urgency or rush, as Focus Taiwan reports:
“We have given it thought and we have discussed it internally, but we will not do it on impulse,” [HTC Chairwoman Cher] Wang said in an interview with the Economic Observer of China.
“We can use any OS we want. We are able to make things different from our rivals on the second or third layer of a platform,” Wang said. “Our strength lies in understanding an OS, but it does not mean that we have to produce an OS.”
Purchasing a mobile OS like webOS might not be a bad idea, and HTC is correct in saying that it has deep understandings of the workings of a mobile operating system, hence its very popular Sense UI. It’d be nice to diversify its handset portfolio from the current, arguably boring army of Android smartphones.
If HTC were to purchase webOS, for example, it’d be interesting what it would do to the OS. Adding another layer or user interface might ruin an already beautiful and intuitive system. While HTC has confidence in its ability to make operating systems more user-friendly, and sometimes more attractive, there are some cases where less is truly more.
[Via: Focus Taiwan]