By 
HTC’s constant fall into its abyss of quarterly losses calls for some major moves to keep the company alive. A recent rumor suggest the Taiwanese smartphone giant is up for sale, with Lenovo being the favorite bidder, but is that really necessary? Can HTC and it’s outstanding experience stay afloat on its own? We are not sure, but a rumored deal with Amazon might make things a bit better.
The latest report states HTC is making the highly rumored Amazon smartphones. This wouldn’t be a bad idea. HTC needs the support and Amazon has a powerful name and market behind it. We are not sure if this is enough to save HTC, though.
Amazon devices are affordable and popular, but they tend to be very affordable. Not to mention, these Amazon devices probably won’t give much honor to the original manufacturer. All the glory of HTC’s amazing build quality would be granted to Amazon – at least in the eyes of the consumer.
Meanwhile, HTC is said to be almost done with one out of three models it has designed for Amazon. No details on the phones were given, but we have heard rumors of a couple phones before. One of them would have a glasses-free 3D display, which HTC does have experience with.
Neither company will comment on this rumor and Amazon keeps denying the fact that there will even be a smartphone coming this year. We all know how PR talk works, though. We will simply have to wait and see. As for me – I would be much more enticed to get an Amazon phone if made by HTC. Especially considering the rumors of it being free or very affordable.
If amazon makes a phone, I’m sure they will do the same thing they did on the kindle fire with android and completely bypass the Google ecosystem. The only reason my kindle fire was bearable as a tablet was that I added the Google play store to it and later on full blown cyanogenmod.
Repurposed HTC First?
I would laugh my ass off for days…
i thought they would have learned their lesson by now after that whole facebook phone thing
Yeah but Amazon knows how to sell stuff.
What’s interesting is that HTC is a part of the Open Handset Alliance. They cannot fork Android. However, it seems you’re allowed to produce hardware that sell it to someone that isn’t in the OHA and they are can run a forked version of Android on said device.
htc’s white knight. yes!
…hopefully it will culminate in a partnership that will be lucrative for both companies and perhaps get HTC back on track to erode most of that burgeoning samsung market share
HTC’s problem is they dont have any mid-market phones. They wanna fight with the big boys with sub par specs but refuse to operate on a level where their subpar specs could be king. There’s been a recent backlash against getting “the best out there” with a replacement of “best bang for the buck”. This is also why moto x is failing.
by what metric is the Moto X failing? I am pretty sure Motorola’s plan is VERY long term. Anyone that has owned one loves it. ANd for Motorola that is the most important thing. They have learnt a lot of lessons from the Moto X, which can be applied to the second wave of handsets. I personally wouldn’t replace my Moto X with anything on the market right now (save a Nexus 5, potentially).
the fact that you would replace it with a Nexus 5 proves my point because a Nexus 5 is a mid-market mid priced phone, which is what the Moto X should be.
Well, Moto X is failing because they make a very good phone with somewhat decent specs and want to charge TOP MONEY for it. People are not stupid anymore, they know that something that is not super high end shouldn’t be priced as super high end. The only people that haven’t realized that are the Apple consumers.
no Fel Pe, moto x is in the same boat as htc one. notwithstanding internal specs, these are beautiful, high performance flagship devices that haven’t had the luxury of huge advertising budgets to pay advertising agencies, students, pundits, shills, etc. Samsung is master at creating misplaced hype and sheep herding
Why didn’t Google spend more money marketing the Moto X? They certainly do have the money for it.
ethics Fel Pe, ethics. Neither they nor any other tech company would ever stoop to the level that samsung has which included among other things, paying college students to pose as shills on blogs and hyping up samsung products while denigrating other phones and manufacturers.
i cant blame samsung for wanting to compensate for the shortcomings of their phones since the phones certainly cannot stand up on their own merits. they are plasticky, and ugly and have blue screens for instance, but its NOT right.
I don’t know about your claims about an ongoing backlash against the best out there. Most people I know get the best they can afford, but everyone I know prefers top of the line, especially considering most people stick with a phone for close to 2 years.
I think some are putting off upgrades because what they have works well enough. But the middle of the road specs can come to bite you later, like smaller batteries.
Camera quality is a big one too, mid range phones tend to have bad cameras compared to flagships.
I always recommend that people buy a flagship top of the line phone, even if it’s last year’s flagship its still usually better than low end or middle of the road phones this year.
you must not be a recent college graduate with debt paying your own way, because if you were you’d realize that theres a large chunk of people who cannot afford the best, thus the resurgence in mid-range phones and T-mobiles epic turn around.
Actually I’m a T-mobile customer and very happy about there turn around. I’m not a recent college graduate, but I am living paycheck to paycheck like many people these days, money problems aren’t confined to 20 something’s in this economy, I still stand by what I said you’re better off getting last year’s flagship instead of a middle of the road phone if you can’t afford the best.
And if you’re on T-mobile, don’t follow the herd, check out ebay 3-4 months after a phone comes out and you can often get it for 2/3 – 3/4 of the price. You aren’t getting a phone subsidy so you’re free to buy your device wherever you want, look around.
Compared to the cost of service, the cost of the phone is small people who settle for mid range phones are often unhappy with their purchase in my experience.
I used to have top end and have switched to mid range. no major difference apart from the fact that my lg l9’s wi-fi function blew out, but that could happen with any phone. My refusal to pay for insurance is why it’s not fixed. hoping the Nexus 5 comes out soon so i can ship this for repair as a backup.
“quietly brilliant”
Main problem, is its hard to sell stuff quietly.
i agree. however, theyve ditched that expression and are proceeding in a much more assertive fashion. with the quality of handsets they put out that have just the right balance of form and function they will be fine
Sounds like a very good deal. For Amazon.
it IS a very good deal. for Amazon AND HTC. lol, a case of sour grapes there Fel Pe?
Amazon makes 0 money per kindle fire they sell. I’m sure they would pay very very small amounts to HTC for them to make Amazon’s smartphones.
if they sell a lot of phones it will not matter. for htc, economies of scale should be realized at which point margins should start to open up and widen ever so gradually over the long term
If $AMZN can fore go the “redonkulous” profit margins that $APPL is known to be making on each iPhone 5s/c then they stand a very good chance at eating a part of Apple, Samsung… etc. lunch.
not so much for Apple because their products are solid and beautiful but he he he I can’t wait…
They’ll put the sd800 in the (amazon phone) watch .
Amazon is coming out with a watch too? I havent heard that but that would be awesome
No, watch and see is what I meant . I’m ready to break the five inch phone barrier , time for a real phablet. The one maxx was the closest thing to that, I hope they have a last minute change and ship it with sd800.
“Amazon devices are affordable and popular, but they tend to be very affordable.”
What’s that REALLY supposed to say?
slim profit margins bordering on the miniscule
More plastic crap…..but if the price is right, what do I care.
HTC build quality is great. The one is amazing. If the Amazon phone is the same it will sell a lot
at the expense of Samsung no less, lol I can’t wait for confirmation. I hope it pans out
no no junkie, I think you misread the article. its htc that will be making phones for Amazon, NOT Samsung