If you recall, we told you earlier about HTC president Martin Fichter’s comment on the iPhone’s ‘cool’ factor. According to Fichter, “iPhones are not that cool anymore.”
In a follow-up comment, Fitcher has stressed that HTC is not out to “kill” Apple’s iPhone. According to HTC, the two smartphone makers serve different customers, and HTC is apparently cool with that.
While it may be true that HTC customers are different than Apple customers, one thing is for sure: Fitcher’s comment about college kids not wanting the iPhone because ‘dads’ use the device is completely ridiculous. Visit any college campus and you’ll see iPhones everywhere.
Here’s Fitcher’s follow-up comment, courtesy of GeekWire:
“I’ve heard the term iPhone killer a lot of times, outside of my company and inside my company. Whenever I hear it in meeting rooms inside HTC, I caution people and say: ‘Hey, look, there is a market there for the iPhone.’ I don’t think we want to kill the iPhone because it is geared to a certain amount of people who like things in a certain way, and we do something different.”
If you want to do the same thing as iPhone in exactly the same way, why don’t you send your people to the Apple store and have them buy an iPhone? We want to do something different. We want to appeal to different end users who have different values. And, if you look at the segmentation and the demographics of what we are doing, we are selling phones to different people. So, I don’t like the term iPhone killer. I think we do something different.”
Alex Heath is a journalist who works for Tech Insider. He’s the former co-host of The CultCast. He has been quoted by the likes of the BBC, KRON 4 News, and books like “ICONIC: A Photographic Tribute to Apple Innovation.” He lives in Lexington, Kentucky. If you want to pitch a story, share a tip, or just get in touch, additional contact information is available on his personal site. Follow him on Twitter.
115 responses to “HTC: We Don’t Want to Kill the iPhone”
What!!??!! That’s like beating someone in the head with a bat and then saying “Whoa, man i wasn’t trying to hurt you.”
Just stop HTC.
You can’t kill a product that made your own product! These companies should be paying homage to apple for even creating such a market! The iphone can never be killed. Apple invented this stuff!
They don’t realize that they look like silly followers. While i believe competing is great why couldn’t they take it to the next step. All in all these phones are all the same as the iphone. The crazy thing is when apple takes the phone to the next step whatever that may be these companies are going to scramble like eggs!
Theres only one thing to say about a statement like that.
HAHAHA FUCKING HA
“We want to appeal to different end users
who have different values. And, if you look at the segmentation and the
demographics of what we are doing, we are selling phones to different
people…I think we do something
different.”This statement is full of generic, vague and CEO-speak cliche that translates to “We have know effin’ idea what we’re gonna do!”
Apple invented the touchscreen smartphone? Wow, this is news to me!
innovated… happy now? lol.
They sound like John McCain talking about “reaching across the isle”… BS
Fitcher said the word “different” six times in that quote but never specified what exactly is different about HTC, its values and its end-users. Yeah HTC phones are different, in that they are not iPhones. Gee, thanks. Do Microsoft, HTC, Dell, and Samsung spokespeople EVER say anything meaningful?
“…and we do something different…We want to do something different… We want to appeal to different end users who have different values…we are selling phones to different people…I think we do something different…”
Wow, well put Fitcher… Now I understand what HTC is all about. Can’t wait to get my hands on one of your “different” products. I know the iPhone is a great product, but HTCs are DIFFERENT.
I think Steve Jobs may have been the last tech CEO who could write or speak eloquently enough to actually communicate something worth listening to. Maybe that’s why so many people got excited for his presentations.
But what do I know? I’m just a mindless Apple fanboy who drools over anything Steve Jobs presents on stage, while Android and HTC users are smart and savvy consumers, on a mission to make the world “different” using products that wouldn’t be here had it not been for Apple.
If you would of hit it any closer it would of been in a bulls eye’s bulls eye.
Helpless Trolling Commentary from another iClone vendor who’s not making much money from handset sales…
Actually yeah, they did. Show me a phone before the iPhone that was ALL touchscreen. There wasn’t one.
ummm am I the only one who kinda thinks he has a point. I think most people who buy a iPhone buy it just because its a iPhone. its trendy and cool and plastered all over everything like movies and tv shows and thats the only reason they buy it, I’m not saying everyone buys it because of this but I would guess the majority of the common public do, its apple, the majority of people buy it just cause its a iPhone.
however what about the rest of the normal public who don’t have the money to buy an overpriced phone (yes its great but it does have a premium designer luxury etc etc price, thats just the way apple products are), or people who want android for its customization, openness, im sure android excels in a lot of areas over the iPhone just as the iPhone excels in others, its just the nature of each platform
I think they are so different that there will be two completly different markets as well as those who go for either, you get android fanboys as well as apple fanboys
also people acting like apple invented the touch screen phone :/
I think he has a point, regardless of how he worded his statement he is at least trying to communicate the idea that they know that producing an ‘iPhone Killer’ is not the solution to being profitable or seen by the public as being a great choice. I like HTC phones (from a industrial design POV), they are nice and solid – there’s not a lot to dislike. The fact that it runs Android puts me off because I don’t trust Google enough but HTCs output is good. Also, they are lucky that if they want to innovate and do their own thing then they can (within reason) within the Android ecosystem (helping fragment it further) and create a solid name for themselves.
People are looking for mac every single day
“HTC: We Don’t Want to Kill the iPhone”
As if they could… As if they could. Don’t let the cheap plastic hit you on the way out.
That’s like saying “even if we wanted to, we can’t … but we better say, we don’t want to in the first place”… I lol’d.
HTC is never going to be something else than a Chinese Manufacturer with no quality-perception or image even close to major brands – I would bet.
THINK DIFFERENT.
Oh, wait,…. LOL!
Look who is talking a cheap piece of plastic stuffed by free OS, u cant change the world like iphone did.
I’m with you SEAmachead. HTC, Samsung, Dell and Microsoft sorta remind me of the the kids in my neighborhood. If I invent a game to play, they never want to play unless they get special privileges. It’s incredible how Apple introduces products that changes the world and the rest of the kids pout, cry and complain because they did not come up with it first.
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MacCity: On the path to converting the world into an Apple Utopia.
I dont know about other people, but I would be somewhat ashamed to be hanging around with a mobile phone that looks the iPhone and a tablet that looks the iPad…
Its like having second best lol
Like every product made in China, the statement is missing nuts and bolts and it falls apart as soon as you read it.
Oh, And Mean the statement made by HTC CEO.
So why do I see so many kids with the old iPhone of their daddies then?
I’ve always loved iPhone, but bought Android as backup. Well let me tell you, it’s a POS. It’s fragmented. You can’t upgrade it, and worst than that it wants to store everything on the root partition. WTF. Android is pure CRAPOLA.
We are not trying to kill the iPhone, but if they could that would be ok with them. I think the HTC hardware is pretty solid, it’s just limited by android.
Just depends if you want good hardware and then turn around and root it, fool around with it and modify it because the software out of the box was not up to par.
HTC would love to get the margins apple gets, the just get a small share of the profit on hardware, with a free os.
“buy the best and you won’t need to complain about quality.” While this may not be the exact quote you get the picture, and I believe it’s a wise one to live by. I have no problem spending top price on the handful of things I use EVERYDAY, be it my iPhone or my work boots, it just makes sense. By the way, I’m in property management around U of M and the idea that kids don’t want iPhones is rubbish, hands down it’s the smartphone of choice.
As if HTC can!
I beg to disagree. HTC hardware is not that solid. Camera sucks (senation an exception, but hey compare a new device to a year-old device). Form factor took several iterations to get better. There’s always a creekh ere and there and the battery cover doesn’t always fit. I had to buy a new one to make it fit. Power.management sucks, and mine’s UI resets everytime I exit an app. Plus the electric stove properties when using 3g and GPS. I have used two of them. I bought them because I thought the iPhone was expensive compared to HTC phones. I am wrong.
Newsflash to all the gits posting hate below. Android is still growing at 500% of the rate of Apple.
Go jam that up you “cheap plastic/crappy OS” asses.
For all your winging, they are doing it 5x better then apple is atm.
Percentages of growth mean nothing.
1 phone sold to 5 phones sold is 500% growth
100 phones sold to 110 phones sold is 10% growth.
490% less still sells more phones. Android can play their percentage games when they still trailing in real numbers. Its hard to keep percentages up when your already the largest. Learn to deal with real numbers.
Really largest? Last I checked android OS had near double the phones live as Apple does.
I agree the rate of Android is growing is indeed very fast…
… sadly so is the rate of uninformed people too.
Apple’s entire product line is made in China you know.
And in other news, the Prime Minister of Grenada just issued a statement saying that they have no interest at all in invading the United States.
I agree Wescravn, my girl wanted to upgrade her iPhone 3G, so she went with Samsung Galaxy S. We gave the iPhone to my sister in law, after a few months the Galaxy S is having issues and my girl is just waiting for the iPhone 5. The old iPhone 3G is still going strong though.
Again thats a stupid statement. Just because you flood the market with 80 fuckin android devices doesnt mean ONE of them has the number of users as iPhones have. Your talking about 4 iPhones vs what some odd 60 android devices now. Please Not one can hang with iPhone. Only when you couldnt every freakin android device together can you compete with what Apple does with a handful.
Only when you count*
And one more thing….you want to talk Percentages….Android maleware is up 400 PERCENT! You can count of that expanding too. Hows that for a good operating system! Android is as crappy is windows.
dream on htc…
I have had both HTC and APPLE. APPLE is the clear winner in hardware and software.
People who choose to stay away from the iPhone are people who primarily want to save money but have something similar to the iPhone. Then there are those who are just anti-Apple and refuse to buy anything from Apple.
Htc and android have no hopes of actually beating apple where it counts in profits, in technology or in it’s ecosystem. The latest android phone went on sale Thursday with ONE person in line and in lab tests, it’s newest chip is 45% benchmark of the ipad2 chip. Android is a fine second choice and a solid if wonky free OS. Htc finally has to admit the truth that people are not fooled by marketing or making a phone thatlooks the iPhone, people know … As for the coolness factor, two things, room mates of the daughter of htc are smart enough to get an invite to their ski lodge over winter break by saying the polite answer … And b) coolness is a subjective remark. The Kia soul is a cool looking mini suv but if you offered your college kid that or a Mercedes clk ragtop (just okay looking), which one would they rather have if you’re paying? There’s talk and there’s action. There’s avreason apple makes 67% of all the profits in the smartphone world. People will say a lot of things but when it comes to actually, people will only pay what they think it’s worth and htc makes 7% of the profits of apple – in other words, htc and android are worth about 10% of an iPhone … Which is just about right as people generally pay about $29 for an android phone
Couldn’t have said it better myself.
Doesn’t matter if its 1 or 6000 phones. Bottom line is more people prefer android.
Ice Cream Sandwich brings uniformity among the Android platform and therefore ends fragmentation. This ends the only advantage iOS has. The android market will explode as no developer wants to be left out of the biggest money pot out there. iOS 5 and beyond will only be playing catchup. Notice how Apple has shifted it’s superiority complex gameplan and started adding features/revisions LONG overdue after Android took over the market. They are also making “budget” handsets TO COMPETE with lower end Android phones. I thought everyone was trying to copy Apple? In reality someone took the original idea and decided instead of recycling the same archaic OS over and over again, they would do some actual innovation. “But… But… It just works!!” Yeah I could give you tons of analogies of stuff that works good, but is old and has innovative, new and better siblings. Wake up, Apple isn’t top dog.
Can you name a touch screen smart phone before the iphone that people actually used!? I don’t think so. Apple invented the first touch screen smart phone that ran on a desktop OS. So yea apple invented the very first multitouch phone. Name one before the iphone.
or is that really news to you?
Um can you name me a phone before the iphone that had a multitouch user interfaced based off of a desktop operating system such as OSX? Apple did in fact invent the very first multitouch screen phone that was based on a usable known operating system that actually worked for the consumer. I mean just name me a phone that did this before the iphone.
apples first touch screen phone patents date back to 1984 my friend
We aren’t saying apple invented multitouch technology we are saying apple invented the technology and operating system to go along with the multitouch user interface on a mobile handset. Which is true.
“We don’t want to kill iPhone”.
…beacause you can’t.
Apple is Top dog alright. iPhone outsells every other phone period. Maybe not OS but who cares the money is with selling phone. Companies still have ways to go, samsung almost got their but they got caught cheating well copying lol
That’s because there’s only one choice if you want iOS.. pretty common sense that with more variety the number of sales per phone will go down. As a whole Android phones dominate Apple’s market share. And the money is actually in selling apps and media when you talk about profits.
As for Samsung copying..
You do know that 25% of the parts in the iphone 4 come from Samsung right?
Also:
http://29.media.tumblr.com/tum…
Doesn’t matter if Neiman Marcus has 100 people shopping in their store right now, Walmart has 1000. Clearly people prefer Walmart to Neiman Marcus.
…. sure they do.
Ice Cream Sandwich also kills Android’s OS market-share, once all Android devices have it running. Unifying the OS finally brings Android on par with iOS. iOS devices have more combined sales. Therefore, I doubt Google/Android is eager to get ICS on every device, anytime soon!
They’re just anti-apple! The “Apple is too expensive” argument isn’t old + it’s irrelevant & not applicable anymore.
Remember HTC’s original iPhone clone “the Touch”, one-button piece of crap that stopped working after a month. Easily the one of the worst phones ever made. It’s an automatic “FAIL” if you’re still making your phones out of cheap plastic. HTC is a low-level player in this mobile race. I’m not going to waste anymore of my words on these “chumps”!!