HTC has seen tremendous success with its handsets over the last few years, and it’s looking to open up three flagship retail stores to carry that momentum forward. HTC is also looking to work with channel operators and open up over a hundred retail shops. It would certainly be nice for the Taiwanese manufacturer to take some cues from Apple and also have demo devices in the stores along with some technical support.
HTC has been one of my favorite manufacturers for quite some time. Prior to its huge Android boom, I felt that it was the only phone manufacturer that could make Windows Mobile usable thanks to its custom user interface. Now that it has taken that over to Android, and is probably my favorite Android manufacturer, the growth has been tremendous. Having retail stores where customers can come in and check out phones, ask questions, get technical help and learn a thing or two about HTC culture and partnerships would be huge for the brand.
Of course, it’s going to be tricky to make retail stores successful. Apple really nailed the retail store experience with its products: everything from the layout, design and the ability to try products before you buy made it hugely successful. Others have tried, but haven’t done very well so far. Nokia closed its flagship stores in a few cities, and the Microsoft stores – blatant rip-offs of the Apple stores – are still very limited in terms of locations and what they can offer.
Here’s to hoping that HTC manages to pull this off.
[Via: Ubergizmo]