HTC

After initially making smartphones based mostly on Windows Mobile, HTC became one of 34 cofounding members of the Open Handset Alliance, a group of handset manufacturers and mobile network operators dedicated to the development of the Android operating system.^[3] The HTC Dream (marketed by T-Mobile in many countries as the T-Mobile G1) was the first phone on the market to run Android.


Although initially successful as a smartphone vendor as it became the largest smartphone vendor in the U.S. in Q3 2011, competition from Samsung and Apple, among others, diluted its market share, which dropped to just 7.2% by April 2015, and the company has experienced consecutive net losses. In 2016, HTC began to diversify its business beyond smartphones and has partnered with Valve to produce a virtual reality platform known as HTC Vive. After having collaborated with Google on its Google Pixel, HTC sold roughly half of its design and research talent, as well as non-exclusive rights to smartphone-related intellectual property, to Google in 2017 for US$1.1 billion.

Corporate information[edit]

HTC's chairwoman and acting CEO is Cher Wang who is the daughter of the late Wang Yung-ching, founder of the plastics and petrochemicals conglomerate Formosa Plastics Group.^[5] Peter Chou serves as head of the HTC Future Development Lab,^[66] and HT Cho as Director of the Board and Chairman of HTC Foundation.^[67] HTC's CFO is Hui-Ming Cheng.^[68] In addition to being chair of HTC, Cher Wang is also acting chair of VIA Technologies.^[5] HTC's main divisions, including the IA (Information Appliance) engineering division and the WM (Wireless Mobile) engineering division, are ISO 9001/ISO 14001-qualified facilities.^[69]


HTC's sales revenue totalled $2.2 billion for 2005, a 102% increase from the prior year. In 2005 it was listed as the fastest-growing tech company in BusinessWeeks Info Tech 100.^[70]


In 2010 HTC worked with Google to build mobile phones running Google's Android mobile OS such as the Nexus One.^[71]


HTC grew exponentially after it was chosen by Microsoft as a hardware platform development partner for the now defunct Windows Mobile operating system (based on Windows CE).


HTC invested strongly in research and development, which accounts for a quarter of its employees.^[4] The company's North American headquarters are located in Bellevue, Washington.^[72] HTC runs a software design office in Seattle (near its North American headquarters) where it designs its own interface for its phones.^[73] In 2011, HTC also opened a research and development office in Durham, North Carolina, a location the company chose over Seattle and Atlanta,^[74] to focus on multiple areas of wireless technology.^[75]


On 17 February 2010, Fast Company ranked HTC as the 31st most innovative company in the world.^[76] On 27 May 2011, in response to customer feedback, HTC announced that they will no longer lock the bootloaders on their Android-based phones.^[77]