After years of relative obscurity, HTC has become a powerful player in the smartphone space. But without its own operating system, it has been beholden to innovations from people like Microsoft and Google. That’s why it’s no surprise that a report said the company is mulling creating its own home-grown OS.
Cheng Hui-ming, CFO of HTC, told Bloomberg that “we continue to assess, but that requires a few conditions to justify” having its own OS. He also said there are “multiple factors to be considered” before plunging into the OS game.
What are these factors? Well, putting together your own OS requires a ton of resources. I’m not just talking about software people but also people to sell the carriers on an untested platform, as well as try to woo away developers from an increasing number of ecosystems. It makes perfect sense for HTC to explore this because it has shown to have strong programming chops with Sense UI and the U.S. market leaders Research In Motion and Apple are able to offer a soups-to-nuts experience because these companies make the hardware and software.
I’ve been saying this for a while: HTC should buy Palm, use its patents to fend off Apple’s lawyers and go crazy with webOS. That would be a blast.
[Via Bloomberg, hat tip to Phone Scoop]