Alliance with Telecom
In the year of 2002, by the time HTC developed the first PDA Phone equipped with Microsoft operating system successfully, its name hadn’t been seen by famous companies like HP or DELL. There were no orders. HTC never thought that just when its PDA Phone business was collapsing, it got its second helper—European telecommunication companies.
PDA Phones had the function of voice transmission, internet access, e-mailing and downloading, and of course that was what telecommunication companies wanted. HTC became their number-one choice. A lot of telecommunication companies ordered for the PDA Phones from HTC, making HTC transform from ODM to a special manufacturer only for the telecommunication companies.
In the year of 2005, the era of 3G began. 3G is just like what Mr. Chang, the vice president, said, “the era of bringing computer with you all the time.” The users could use their phones to have their meetings, to make their video calls, and to use the internet, etc. To win in the market of 3G, HTC had an advantage of ODM, which got them piles and piles of orders from USA and Europe.
Designing, developing, and doing the customer-based ODM for telecommunication companies, HTC and telecommunication companies both benefit. This also pushed HTC to the same level as Nokia and Motorola, which were very famous at that time.
Left: The smartphone that HTC designed for the ORANGE company.
(picture from Wikipedia)
Right: The ORANGE company became a friend of HTC. (picture from Wikipedia)