HTC France: We’ll Always Have More Flagship Products On WinMo

by Rob Jackson on June 11th, 2009 at 9:44 pm

UPDATE: An overwhelming response from our French readers (you guys are awesome!) indicates the quotation was indeed translated improperly and should actually read close to, “Moreover, we will still have some flagship products on winmo".

Android is still an up and coming mobile operating system. It has to earn its stars, I understand. It has a load of competition and only a couple phones using the operating system have been released thus far – I understand that as well. But most would agree that it has the potential to become a global powerhouse competing for one of the top spots in terms of market share. That is why these words from head of HTC France and HTC Benelux Frédéric Tassy, are so surprising:

HTC will “always [have] more flagship products on Windows Mobile,”

Always? It is one thing to say for the forseeable future. Or within the next year or two. But always? Damn that is nothing short of HARSH!

I would venture to guess one of several things:

  • Benelux has a thing for WinMo
  • HTC wants to keep Microsoft happy since WinMO does make up the bulk of HTC’s product line and profits
  • WinMo 7 is going to be a killer update that brings Microsoft Windows Mobile back the forefront
  • They are trying to play down their Android involvement so actual announcements will be met with mor excitement/buzz
  • It was a slip of the tongue taken out of context, or language translation deficiency

I’m not sure which of the above was responsible for the attributed quote or if perhaps something else caused the comment. Any way you look at it, “always” is a pretty severe word to use. Although you have to wonder what the French word is that he used and if it is an exact translation. Any Frenchies out there?

htcandroid_500x289

In my own opinion, I’d rather be the underdog…  and I think the companies who adopt Android most rapidly (and efficiently) will be handsomely rewarded. HTC has thus far been setting the pace and it seems to have paid off. You know what they say… never say never… or in this case never say always!

[Mobinaute via wmpoweruser, engadgetmobile]

  • SirFenwick

    Having a Android based phone makes me never want to go to another phone OS(POS).

  • http://twinkserver.com Rob

    Rofl? Did an HTC Head just say that Flagship HTC products will basically BELONG to Windows Mobile? This is a joke..Right?

    Maybe the French haven’t heard..But Windows is the biggest pile of shit running code in the world. Windows is FAVORED as “user friendly”. NO ONE BUILDS ANYTHING they want 100% uptime/stability with on a Windows platform.

    Windows is a bad idea with a good UI..that’s all it is folks. I’d rather DOS my way through the rest of this world then press “start”. GG HTC, If this comment was not taken out of context, HTC is going to have heaps of plastic and glass screens and nothing to do with them. I never thought I’d say this, but I’d rather have an iPhone than windows mobile. There I said it.

  • Wrenchy

    Quoting Rob:

    >>but I’d rather have an iPhone than windows mobile.

    EEEEWWWWWWWW. WASH YOUR MOUTH OUT!

  • http://twinkserver.com Rob

    I would, and I can’t stand Apple, The iPhone OR AT&T, but I would sleep with all 3 to stay away from anything Windows.

  • Gert

    My French is a little rusty, but I believe Mr. Tassy said “On top of that we will always have flagship products on Windows Mobile.”

    Not quite the same message as the one conveyed by the automatic translation…

  • http://l6n.org/android/ Neil

    I couldn’t understand whether this story is about France or Benelux.

  • Raphael Goulais

    Hi Rob,

    I’m french, so I went on the original quote : “Nous aurons de plus toujours des produits phare sous Windows Mobile.”. This “toujours” must not be read as “always” but more like “still”. He’s speaking of the 2009 and 2010 years and the success of Android for these years. He says they still have Windows mobiles in their catalog, and that the HTC Touch is their best seller.

    You’ve been right thinking the word “always” was not accurately translated. Overall, this interview is positive in regard to Android.

  • Olivier

    Good News! :-)
    I’m French and I think I’ve found the sentence:
    “Nous aurons de plus toujours des produits phare sous Windows Mobile” which does not mean what you think at all.
    “toujours” means always but not in this particular context.
    Here, the sentence means more something like:
    “Moreover, we will still have some flagship products on winmo”.

  • http://abrunete.free.fr/ Adrien

    Hi Guys,

    I’m a French reader of Phandroid, and Google’s automated translation isn’t quite correct there.
    It means more something like this :
    “Moreover, we’ll always have some FlagShip products running WiMo.”

    the “more” comes wrongly from the “moreover” translation

    Hope that helps.

  • http://blog.rafou.net/ Raphael Goulais

    I’ll explain more after a visit to an online dictionnary : “plus” in french is more, but “de plus” means “likewise” or “moreover”. So this one is also badly translated. “toujours” means “always” but also “still” or “yet”.

    So instead of “have always more flagship”, we have “moreover, we still have flagship”.

  • http://www.android4all.com Alex

    Ok, I live in Belgium and speak French.

    The exact sentence is : “Nous aurons de plus toujours des produits phare sous Windows Mobile.” which means “Furthermore we will still have flagship products on Windows Mobile”. Quite different, huh !

    BTW your article is a bit misleading : Frédéric Tassy is the head of HTC France and HTC Benelux.

    Take care !

  • jedi

    I just read the french original interview. The traduction

    HTC will “always [have] more flagship products on Windows Mobile,”

    is not exactly what he said. A better traduction would be

    “[For HTC, 2009 is the year of the beginning of Android...] Furthermore, we will always have some flagship products on Windows Mobile”

    Notice the “some”. He didn’t say more products on Windows Mobile, he only said that they will not give up on Microsoft.

  • http://yesuvia.blogspot.com zefi

    I’d rather DOS my way through the rest of this world then press “start”.

    Yeah, and geeks rule the world.

  • http://davidkearns.com/ Kearns

    The word he used is certainly always, but he didn’t say ALL of their products, just the “flagship” (or “lighthouse” if translated directly) products. Sounds like he expects that the Windows product will always shine more brightly, perhaps he hasn’t actually seen Android in person…

  • krissou

    Hi,

    I think I’ve found the interview of Frédéric Tassy, responsible for HTC France&Benelux where he mentioned that:
    http://www.mobinaute.com/281030-frederic-tassy-htc-2009-android.html
    “Nous aurons de plus toujours des produits phare sous Windows Mobile”

    Don’t be afraid by that “always” as it means more “we will continue to propose WinMo products…” than a “forever” meaning.

  • Nik

    I think I’ve found the original interview….
    Oh, wait, so has everyone else!
    Guys, let’s stop with the ‘I found it, I am french, and it said…’. We get the message!

  • krissou

    Many french readers here LOL!

  • Damn Frenchies

    You guys really dont give up on translating, do you? I figured that you would have surrendered long ago.



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