HTC has set the pace in Android phones, grabbing a valuable window of almost a year when it has been the only major vendor with a commercial offering, and now set to be the first to take the Google system into China.
Just as Samsung prepares to launch an Android phone to take on HTC’s Dream and Magic ‘ with other vendors close behind ‘ the Taiwanese firm has made another strong move to propel itself into the top rank of branded cellphone vendors on the back of Android. It will sell the first Android handset in China from June, according to CEO Peter Chou, offering a variant of the HTC Magic via China Mobile. This will cost about Yuan5,000 ($730), according to leaks, and will initially support only EDGE, not 3G, though HTC clearly has its sights set on Mobile’s 3G roll-out, and will release a TD-SCDMA version at an unspecified date, probably before year end.
The Magic had heavy design input from Vodafone, which is launching it in several European countries as an exclusive. No surprise, then, that Vodafone’s increasingly close ally, China Mobile, should also look to this handset. HTC has proved its credentials as a creator of strong phones that can be heavily tailored to the carriers’ brands and apps ‘ despite the supplier’s goal of increasing its own brand strength too. That ambition can certainly take a back seat when the chance of getting an early foot in Chinese 3G is at stake, and the Chinese version of Magic will sell under Mobile’s ‘Dopod’ brand and is likely to be called the ‘oPhone’ ‘ the name Mobile chose last year for its own implementation of Android.
And as well as potential joint purchasing plans, China Mobile can take advantage of the work Vodafone has already done with HTC on the Magic experience. The Chinese cellco is determined to have full control of the software, apps store and user interface on its smartphones, and has been working on Android-based interfaces and experiences. It is also partnering with Vodafone, Verizon Wireless and Softbank in the Joint Innovation Lab, which is creating a unified widgets-based software platform for the four carriers’ networks, and their billion-strong combined user base. However, much of the new phone’s user interface was designed by Mobile, and it will come with embedded links to key web services.
Despite all this global cooperation, many still expected China Mobile to get its first Android handsets from a local supplier, over which it could have full control, but increasingly the Chinese consumers want international brands and sleek designs.
HTC has set a goal of doubling sales in China this year from 800,000 units last year, most of these Windows handsets or white label phones. Worldwide, HTC aims to increase shipments this year by more than 10% from last year’s 12m units, and to see a 10% full year increase in revenue despite a 3% year-on-year decline in the difficult Q1. Its agreement with China Mobile is non-exclusive so it could offer Android Dream or Magic to China Telecom and China Unicom too.
Apple has not yet succeeded in signing a carrier deal for Chinese iPhones, talks have partly been scuppered by the vendor’s rigid position on brand and control of its value chain. Its model ‘ entirely opposite to HTC’s, given the Taiwanese firm’s heritage in white label handsets and its focus on hardware ‘ cannot allow the cellco to take too much control of brand, user interface or revenue share. But this has created a major dilemma for Apple ‘ while the Android platform lends itself to many different branded implementations, to support multiple operator deals, the iPhone is all about a unified experience and an unmistakable Apple look and feel. This, in turn, makes it hard for the iPhone to penetrate cellcos, mainly in Asia, that are used to a very large measure of control over their devices and software, a control that they intend to hold onto as web services become the key to mobile growth.
Although looking to Android for at least one element of its turnaround, Sony Ericsson (SEMC) is closer to the Apple way of thinking than the HTC one, with much of its success resting on strong brands (especially those from Sony, Walkman and Cybershot) and a firm association of its handsets with multimedia experiences and web services. It intends to build on this approach with its Entertainment Unlimited content proposition, backed up by the forthcoming Idou device, and also, probably, by some of its future Android launches. However, for SEMC to make a splash in the crowded Android market, it will need to preserve what it sees as its key differentiators, excellence in music, video and imaging (even if it plans to throw away the key brands associated with those qualities ‘ see separate item). This means it will rely on Android supporting multimedia services to a high level, and the Google platform does not seem to have made the grade so far. SEMC says it will sit out versions 1.0 and 1.5 of Android and wait for 2.0, even though this could delay its launch into early 2010, well behind that of major rival Samsung, and even Motorola.
Peter Ang, VP of marketing for SEMC’s Asia-Pacific region, told DigiTimes that the company wanted to wait for the next release of Android ‘ expected late this year ‘ because it would have better multimedia support.
Ang also insisted that SEMC would continue to support Windows Mobile ‘ even though the firm’s CEO Hideki Komiyama recently said that the only Windows handset currently in the SEMC stable, the Xperia X1, had been an ‘experiment’, and (he implied) not a very successful one at that. This would make it logical for SEMC to reduce its R&D and marketing costs by focusing just on Android and Symbian.
Komiyama had also hinted that SEMC would not be rushing into the Android market. In April he said in an interview with Reuters: “It does require a lot of evaluation, as well as a lot of testing, a lot of acceptance from a consumer viewpoint, and there is still some time to go.’
Other reports from Android land ‘ as well as Acer and Samsung shipping handsets around midyear, Motorola’s first Android phone, codenamed Morrison, should debut in time for the holiday buying period, initially with T-Mobile USA. Panasonic of Japan is developing a Google phone, though this will not be released until next year, possibly around the same time as SEMC’s.
Acer has released more details of its upcoming Android smartphone, and has set itself the goal of grabbing 5% of the smartphone market by 2014. As expected, smartphones were the highlight of the latest set of estimates for Q1 in the handset sector, which overall suffered its worst decline since 2001.
PC maker Acer has already launched its Tempo line of Windows handsets and will follow up with its first Android model this year, targeting the low price web-enabled market. It expects its products to go into pay-as-you-go models in particular.
Aymar de Lencquesaing, head of Acer’s mobile activities, told the Reuters Technology Summit that the company is aiming to have the device on the market by the end of the year.
And Canadian firm Koolu has taken the Neo FreeRunner open source handset design from OpenMoko, and is putting Android 1.5 on it, aiming to release a consumer version this summer. Koolu is using the GTA02 version of FreeRunner, which uses only open phone standards, CTO Jon Hall told ZDnet. Its product will be marketed worldwide to small and medium companies and developing economies, in particular. Hall is also executive director of not-for-profit user organization Linux International, which recently took on Intel’s Linux netbook platform Moblin.