Apparently, HTC thinks that iPhones aren’t ‘cool’ anymore because parents use them. HTC US president Martin Fichter said in an interview today at the Mobile Future Forward conference in Seattle that kids and teenagers don’t want iPhones anymore because ‘dads’ have them.
Martin Fichter on the iPhone hype:
“I brought my daughter back to college — she’s down in Portland at Reed — and I talked to a few of the kids on her floor. And none of them has an iPhone because they told me: ‘My dad has an iPhone.’ There’s an interesting thing that’s going on in the market. The iPhone becomes a little less cool than it was. They were carrying HTCs. They were carrying Samsungs. They were even carrying some Chinese manufacture’s devices. If you look at a college campus, Mac Book Airs are cool. iPhones are not that cool anymore. We here are using iPhones, but our kids don’t find them that cool anymore.”
Keep telling yourself that, Martin.
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.
152 responses to “HTC President: Kids Hate iPhones Because Dads Have Them”
If you can’t beat the competition, you can always trash talk it and belittle it. Right, Palm?
It must be a Portland thing. I asked my 17-year old daughter what she wanted for her birthday and she screamed “AN IPHONE!”
I guess it’s a good thing my dad has no idea how to use a cellphone, let alone an iPhone.
so i’ll always be cool!
Yeah well it’s the fathers and mothers that are buying them, not the kids – unless they’ve gotten off their arses and got themselves a part time job anyway.
bull shit %90 of the kids in my high school have an iPhone, those who don’t want one and are getting one when their contract is up. I am not exaggerating at all, we live in an affluent town.
My dad uses a iPhone because of me.
My mom, my dad, my brother (20 year old), and myself (18 year old) all have had iPhones since the 3GS model came out. My brother and I actually feel the opposite of what Martin suggests. We think our parents are cool because they have iDevices like us.
HTC is so pathetic.
My parents, family, and friends use iPhone because of me as well… I really don’t know what the point of this story is…
buuuuuuuuuuuulllllllllll
What an absolute load of crap. Our god-daughter is 12yrs old in 1hrs time (the 13th), and she wanted a BlackBerry. I took the piss saying Blackberrys are crap and iPhones are better blah blah blah, and she replied, yes but my friends parents cant afford iPhones that cost £500-£600, so they have Blackberrys that cost £130 or free with a small £10 per month contract and now everybody has a Blackberry BBM number, so she can text them all for free even if she has no credit or allowance. And as they all love texting, they prefer the keyboard.
None of them want an Android or iPhone, they all love Blackberrys!
What utter rubbish!
Hum! Is this guy taken to smoking illegal stuff?
That would make this guy completely irrelevant… maybe he should fire his stupid a$$ self…
I’m 23; my wife is 23; my friend is 26; my step-brother 30, my friends 20, 21, 22… Wouldn’t it be fair to say we’re all “college-aged”? It’s definitely THE phone to have. Everyone has an excuse why they don’t have an iPhone. Unfortunately for Android phones, they have 3 OLD guys stating that iPhones aren’t cool. None of my friends seem to feel that way. ;)
I am 24. My dad and I got the original iPhone when it came out. My 33-year-old boyfriend has an iPhone. My dad’s 45-year-old girlfriend prefers her Blackberry. My dad’s girlfriend’s 13-year-old son desperately wants an iPhone. All of my 20-30-somethings friends have an iPhone, or they have a Blackberry because they use it for work, or they have an Android or HTC or whatever phone because they can’t afford the iPhone or weren’t on AT&T and were locked into a contract. People of every age like iPhones. There is just not the craze for HTC and Android phones like there is for the iPhone.
“Reed is quirky, and so are the people who go there.” ~ Melissa B. (a self-professed alumni of Reed College) source: http://www.yelp.com/biz/reed-c…
The young people I know that don’t have iPhones only lack them if they can’t afford them. Androids are simply the “cheap” economy line of smart-phones.
RRRRRRRiiiiigggggghhhhhhhttttttttt
You’ll always be cool until you have a teenager of your own. <lol></lol>
what a horrible “statistic”. There are more people in my college with iPhones than any other phone. I guess my college is only for old people… yea…right
Perhaps he should have stayed at the college! Perhaps, his grammar would improve!
If I was talking to the US President of HTC, I would be yelling that I hated my iPhone and wanted an HTC. however….in real life..i’m attached to my iPhone and have turned my Dad, mom, brother, sister, grandpa and all my other friends onto the iPhone band wagon. My g-pa did have an Android and ditched it after about 6 months swearing off all smartphones, then i got him the iPhone and he hasn’t looked back
I guess that is why kids hate iPods, iPads and macs
Reading what this doofus said explains why HTC will never be able to rival the success of the iPhone.
You have to believe his own employees are thinking that their boss is a clueless management stooge.
His comment is plain evidence of Apple has totally kicked handset ass.
My kids are kind of jealous.. Stepmom has an iPhone. I have an iPad. They have 3 year old iPod Nanos. All the teens that I know here in Southern California want iPhones. Anything else is just a placeholder until they get it.
And wait a second… Did that quote imply in the last sentence that the US President of HTC is using an iPhone? Wonder how that goes over in meetings.
Yep – My Dad drives a Mercedes and my Mom drives a BMW, that’s why I am driving a piece of shit Ford escort – not because I CAN’T afford a nicer car, but because the nicer cars aren’t cool anymore.
HTC be trollin’…
Huh, I want one, because my Dad has one.
Did anyone notice the reference “she’s down in Portland at Reed”?
Reed College is where Steve Jobs went for a semester before dropping out.
Lol that’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. I would never ever ever own an htc phone. But I’ve got to be honest I was in radio shack the other day and a family and their kids were in there and the kid was making an argument that everyone has an iPhone and that they aren’t cool, which I clearly don’t agree with. I think the iPhone is popular in the 23 and up demographic. It’s a more classy mature device so I kind of see what he’s saying and I did witness the kid in radio shack first hand saying it wasn’t cool. Many kids are an iPod touch for gaming and some other type of phone n the ages 13-19
If the HTC is cheaper, then the parents are lucky.
Never mind the Radio Shack vs Coolness aspect.
You know who doesn’t worry about silly shit like this?
Apple.
But since developers can’t make any money on Android compared to iphone… iOS is destined to be the next dominant mobile game platform. (Android will be the mobile version of free flash games on the web. People will buy, people will play, but no one will aspire to it.)
But hey, Dad plays games, so games aren’t cool any more…. BWAHAHAHAHA.
This is the type of thinking that companies get so wrong at their peril. My kids love their iPhones.
My dad wants to buy an iPhone 5/4S, give it to me and I’ll give him my iPhone 4.
The same with a future iPad 3
in other news, everybody at HTC except the president (or is it?) secretly have an iPhone….wait, whaaat?
this guy is hilarious! I owned an HTC touch pro 2 a little over a year ago and I’ll tell you that this kid that is willing to pay 8 bucks for a beer so long as he’s in a nice bar/club will never buy another HTC product because…. it blows!!!! It felt like using netzero back in the 90s bud…by the way, it must be a while since you’ve been to college because you’re assuming that they would even be honest with you….did you forget…look in the mirror…YOU ARE THE ADULT THEY DONT TRUST…so they take the “we’ll tell him whatever he wants to hear” approach….kind of along the same line your interns at HTC probably do : )
i don’t agree with him that its only old people or dads or moms but i do agree that iPhone is a dumbed down os for older people or people that don’t under that much about tech, but it also has nicer apps than android but htc phones are much faster than an iphone and have 4g and can be customized much more. i love mac’s but iPhone is not open enough even if you jailbreak it. i had a ipod touch that i used to use for music and games but would never trade my htc phone for an iPhone its just no fun to play with
dream on and get lolmad
I’m 13 and want an iphone and my dad has an iphone i still think there cool…
Wow. He talked to a few kids and now he is an expert guiding the future of a +billion dollar company on this insider information. The reason kids don’t have iPhones is because they cost $299 + a 2 year contract (about $2000). EVERY kid on the planet wants an iPhone or an iPad. EVERY kid on the planet also wants an Android tablet and Android phone. But what do parents get them? If they are lucky a kindle or a color nook ’cause it costs 100-200 bucks with no contract and loads of free books.
Clearly he did not attain the President position through intellect.
Ya, try again. You missed, just like Michael Dell.
So apparently observing a couple kids at a college, ONCE, is enough to make judgements about the smartphone market? And I when was the last time an owner of Chinese tech was cool? That’s got geek written all over it.
I love how these bald, middle-aged men with suits 2 sizes too large are talking about whats “cool” and not.
I don’t use an iPhone because it’s cool but because it’s a good product. We’re not talking about fashion accessories here, its a phone. People don’t buy phones because they look “cool”. Maybe Fitcher should be president for UGG.
you are a kook
Someday they will take a step out of the past and get an iPhone
I use a Droid Incredible that was issued by my work to me. I have an iPhone personally. The Incredibly Worthless phone is forwarded to the iPhone just to keep mr sane.
Sorry but I am a child (currently have a blackberry) and both my parents have an iPhone. This isn’t stopping me from getting an iPhone in February.
At least 2/3 of my Class (11th grade) have a 3GS or 4, the other 3rd have WP7 or a dumb phone with an iPod Touch. And we Live in Forbes, NSW (Its in the middle of nowhere in Australia and we all get our iPhones unlocked for $700+) Which leads me to believe that Apple has truly won, in Australia anyway.
ballmer, dell, fichter… all clowns.
News article should be: “HTC President: ‘Kids Hate iPhones Because Dads Have Them’, Says a Dad.”
Ha, all the geeks I know think HTC and Samsung phones are so much cooler than the iPhone. Meanwhile, all the cool people who actually know what’s cool refuse to touch Androids. So… are you gonna take advice on how to be “cool” from geeks?
Anyway, with the hipster kids these days cool isn’t cool. They’ll buy Android to AVOID being cool. And they’ll say, “Android’s whatever.” You can’t please everyone, especially hipsters.
Out here in Japan, where phones have long been a staple of life for every age and smartphone models are more numerous than in the US, the iPhone is *still* a highly used item despite its historically cool reception into the Japan market. The iPhone 4 is everywhere, in the hands of locals from the classic Japanese Salaryman to the college student. The only people who I don’t see with an iPhone or other iOS device are students below college ages, who genera The enormous superstore, Yodobashi Camera-Umeda, just installed its own Apple Store area. Giant banners adorn the front of the complex announcing the latest Apple products (currently the MacBook air if I remember right) and were fluttering in the spring-summer breeze this year announcing the store’s grand opening.
HTC phones are also on sale out here. I don’t remember the last time I saw one outside of a store; perhaps I need to look a little harder to eliminate expectation bias.
Yeah, even kids out here in Asia, home of crazy phones that dry your hair or whatnot, iPhones are taking on a sizable chunk of the market.
That might be the most narrow-minded comment ever. Obviously his presidency wasn’t determined by logical conduct or ability to conduct proper research. I’m a high school student and as far as I see, everyone either wants an iPhone or has one; almost nobody likes Android handsets here apart from the “indies” or “hipsters.”
what a stories
Ferrari, Porsche and Aston-Martin (just to name a few) have exactly the same problem! kids dont consider them cool because dads got them… omg did those guys really stood before an audience and said that? thats despair… :D
LOL! I’m ok with this!
i agree to some extent. iPhones aren’t cool anymore, androids are. i’m not saying iPhones suck, but androids are different. you can choose what kind of hardware you want. you can have what you need and nothing more. i still like iPhones, but they’re slowly losing their popularity
Sounds like Martin Fichter has been taking ‘marketing’ and ‘cool’ tips from the great sage Steve Ballmer. . .
When a tech gadget redefines a market, delivers brilliant design in style and is also easy to use – it is cool. All the me-too products that follow have less kudos and will try to build in new features or cheapness to create their USP.
In reality the iPod, iPhone and iPad have helped make technology cool. Once it was the preserve of men and nerds – now they are the choice of the discerning.
Hell this is why I love the iPhone, D-Bag kids dont have them. Its a symbol of maturity
Sorry Martin Fichter, but my kids (and everyone else in my house) have iPhones because I have an iPhone. Your argument is invalid.
Also, everyone is weaning to using OS X since I started using it.
Delusional
I see no case here. I see iPhones everywhere I look around, and people just love them. And the ones who don’t have an iPhone they would probably have one if it wasn’t for the contract, or for the carrier they are tied with.
I say HTC (as well as all other mobile manufacturers) are just desperate, confused and clueless. He’s just trying to come up with something to perpetuate his existence by saying there’s a light at the end of the tunnel he’s in.
Good luck!
Shouldn’t the HTC president be using a HTC phone… wouldn’t see any apple president using any other phone… unless they meant he just owned one to test it.
When I was a kid, everything that I thought was cool was something generally only old men had. Lamborghini Countach, Ferrari 308, machine guns, mansions, speed boats, planes, and supermodels.
Now I’m that age and I pretty much would just like to have a new Kia.
The first iPhone was revolutionary and everyone wanted one for that reason but if you look at the best of the best android phones from htc and samsung apple is falling behind and fast. The apple ecosystem keeps people tied into their products so if you have a iPod touch your more likely to get an iPhone and you have an iPhone your more likely to have a iPad. I personally really wanted the first iPhone but hated AT&T and by the time it got to Verizon I got my first android the htc evo and haven’t looked back. The main thing the the i products have going for it is the app store and good build quality which is why I chose a iPad over a galaxy tab, but when the day comes the android matches apples quality of apps ( which will be soon ) apple will suffer because there are already some android phones with some great build quality out. I know the you apple head fanboys will disagree but you know it’s the truth. Android does things now that at apples pace will take them until iPhone 10 to do.
I went to hongkong and to macau and i see almost EVERYBODY has an iphone 4!!!!
I think that says more about Reed students than the iPhone.
There is SOME truth to what he’s saying.
There are more Android phones, combined (39% as of July 2011), than iOS phones (28%), but the iPhone is the #1 phone.
Phone Marketshare in the US, as of July 2011. Iphone is the #1 individual phone, Android is #1 in number of phones.
Yea, that is like a couple of kids out of millions. You cannot just generalize that kids do not like iPhones because a couple of them said they did not want one. I know a ton of kids who want iPhones. I have an iPhone. HTC has lag issues.
Certain segment, i think they call them early adopters, have moved away from iphone some time ago. The big masses are now buying iphones.
When iphones are available at local superstores, they are not just very attractive for early adopters.
Did you hear that Apple isn’t cool anymore? That’s the rumor I heard, tell everyone you know, only cool people know Apple isn’t cool anymore. If you want to be cool, you’ll spread the rumor.
Hmm… Please do tell what android does that ios does not? keep in mind, the subject is more talking about the hardware than the operating system. So, your saying gingerbread is 6 years more advanced than iOS4? Please tell us how.
And in terms of hardware, getoudaheree, man. htc, samsung, and lg cant hold a candle to apple in design or quality of products. Motorola somewhat does.
LMAO!! BEST COMMENT EVAR!!!! (today, at least)
that kid is obviously a zune owner ;)
LMAO 3 YEAR OLD IPOD NANO? you’re a nazi, man!
Guys, I was at the mall the other day and there was a line of people outside of the sprint store, it stretched around the corner. I was curious to see what the madness was about and it turns out, the HTC Wildfire was just released but sadly, the store was sold out so I wasn’t able to get my hands on one. Oh well, I guess I’ll have to stick with this iPhone. Being cool will have to wait.