By HTC’s always stuck to their guns in their refusal to jump into the tablet game, and that lack of desire doesn’t look like it’ll go away in the near future. Speaking with Pocket-Lint, the company’s PR and community manager – Eric Lin – give us a pretty sensible reason as to why they have yet to take on the challenge (and that challenge simply being “Destroy iPad”).
We are always looking at it, but, right now, the whole idea is that in order to be successful with a tablet, you need to have something compelling. And not just a compelling form factor.
You’ve seen how, at Computex, there were 80 different Android tablets”, he continued. “So if we just release an Android tablet, then we’re one of 81… Whereas, if we have a compelling feature, a really compelling use, anything like that, then it’ll help us to stand out. It’s going to take a lot of work searching for that
He’s got a pretty decent point, if I must say so myself. We’ve already got some of the bigger names such as Samsung, Archos, Dell, and Huawei going after that market, with many other smaller names trying to make their claims to fame using Android. Add HTC into the mix and they could just as easily see themselves being lost in a big sea of obscurity.
[via Androinica]
moreover smartphone market is around 20 times bigger than tablet industry as of now. And android is still not polished enough for tablets. But I think Dell streak is onto a good idea the combination of phone/tablet in a single device is worth exploring about for HTC.
The thing is, with the Sense UI I think they do have something compelling against the other tablets. I’d love to have that and their widgets on a big screen. Their phones seem to work much better than the others and I’d be very interested in a tablet just because I know HTC make quality products.
“You’ve seen how, at Computex, there were 80 different Android tablets”, he continued. “So if we just release an Android tablet, then we’re one of 81…”
yes but they are all cheap no-name clones. Jut make a tablet with decent specs (3G, ffc, etc) and it will beat iPad.
I think that if HTC puts out a tablet they are going to bank hello have you seen the phones that this company has been offering to its users????? It will do very well in my opinion!
Except all 81 of those tablets suck and haven’t been released or haven’t taken off…
HTC attempted a hybrid solution. A quasi windows mobile platform and and vista to boot. Unfortunately it really sucked.
An android platform and lose the Windows and it would be a winner…
I agree with Rich The Sense UI on a tablet would be amazing..
I think Motorola making one and advertising with Verizon would likely get the best attention. If they had a great tablet and market it half as well as they do the Droid series, it’ll open some eyes that there is more than just the iPad out there. Is Motorola inerested in tablets, who knows.
One benefit of iPad is the iLife productivity suite. It isn’t Microsoft, but it is beautiful and very capable. Has OpenOffice.org been ported over to Android yet so that it would run on an Android tablet? I don’t need it on my Droid, but it would be an essential addition to a tablet that might substitute a computer in some instances.
No, he doesn’t have a point — hardware manufacturers should NOT add any special sauce to the software, ever!
They should only focus on making the hardware great.
There is plenty of room for differentiation remaining in the hardware, given that by your own reviews no one else has even come remotely close to the ipad hardware.
Even if you match the ipad hardware there’s plenty of room to improve. For example, put in a front-facing camera. Work out a deal for low-cost cellular. Make a standardized physical form factor and standard physical interface (like the ipod did, which allowed for all those wife-pleasing accessories that have made the platform so popular all this time).
I believe the overwhelming reason the existing android pads are NOT successful is because no one wants to get stuck using a device with so little support from other users and from accessory makers. And then some of the pad makers have even gone even further in the wrong direction by making their own app stores!
Good grief! You don’t sell more units by going your own route — you sell more units by making everyone believe that they are safe in choosing your product. Safe because they know that they can buy accessories and apps that will still work when they decide to replace your product with the next iteration of that form factor from someone else.
Think about the phone situation — when you go to consider a phone today, you have to stop and consider whether you want to be stuck with motoblur or sense, and whether you want to be stuck with the existing version of android, just because the danged OEMs stuck motoblur or sense on the phone.
Every time I see Sense, Motoblur, and apps that work only one one carrier (exluding carrier-specific billing and vmail stuff), it just pisses me off.
@chewtoy +1