HTC CEO Peter Chou, in an interview with Elizabeth Woyke of Forbes during the ongoing CTIA conference, revealed a few tidbits worth mentioning:
- Regardless of the consumer success of the Nexus One, the device has managed to bring in new business for HTC.
- The Nexus One showed the world that HTC is the top Android brand, and that again, helps business.
- Concerning the claim that HTC only sold 135,000 units of the Nexus One, Chou said: “Considering Google didn’t do [standard] retail or marketing for it, the Nexus One is doing pretty well.”
- Chou said he is “thrilled” with Windows Phone 7 and that HTC expects to release a device running Microsoft’s new OS by the end of this year.
There you have it folks, straight from the horse’s mouth. There were a lot of worries about HTC and Microsoft’s relationship since historically HTC has gone to great lengths to abstract Microsoft’s convoluted Windows Mobile 6.5 operating system with an overlay known as Sense UI. With Sense, consumers buying HTC devices have roughly the same experience, regardless of operating system, and it also helped to differentiate their hardware when compared to every other slate touch screen device on the market.
Since Microsoft essentially said “you have to use this chip, this screen, these features, and we control the UI”, people were wondering whether HTC was going to skip Windows Phone Series 7.
The answer is a resounding no.
[Photo Credit: Flickr user “textopus”]