Yep. My first "proper" smartphone was a Palm Treo (made by HTC) and after that I had a couple of HTC phones running Windows Mobile back when your options were generally PalmOS, Windows Mobile, and Blackberry.
Those things completely suckered me in and won me over when I found out I could stream Shoutcast stations in the car via my phone or download and install 3rd party apps or turn my phone into a turn-by-turn GPS navigator. It was like I had all the phone/calendar/email stuff plus a TomTom and an XM Radio without any additional subscriptions to pay for.
For all of their flaws (and there were plenty), HTC really was making some of the most capable smartphones on the market. Outside of some high-end, several thousand dollar micro-portable PC, it was the closes thing I had seen to having a full computer in my pocket.
But then the iPhone came out and despite lacking so many of the "smart" features in its debut version, it was oh so much more appealing to the non-techie, consumer market and the rest is history.
HTC never really seemed to come near being an industry leader ever since. They've at best kept up with Samsung and Apple and Moto and LG, etc. but they've never really bested any of them in an undeniable way. I'm left wondering if the resources of their company just weren't sufficient to compete when larger companies with more product diversity came to take on the same market.
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Yep. My first "proper" smartphone was a Palm Treo (made by HTC) and after that I had a couple of HTC phones running Windows Mobile back when your options were generally PalmOS, Windows Mobile, and Blackberry.
Those things completely suckered me in and won me over when I found out I could stream Shoutcast stations in the car via my phone or download and install 3rd party apps or turn my phone into a turn-by-turn GPS navigator. It was like I had all the phone/calendar/email stuff plus a TomTom and an XM Radio without any additional subscriptions to pay for.
For all of their flaws (and there were plenty), HTC really was making some of the most capable smartphones on the market. Outside of some high-end, several thousand dollar micro-portable PC, it was the closes thing I had seen to having a full computer in my pocket.
But then the iPhone came out and despite lacking so many of the "smart" features in its debut version, it was oh so much more appealing to the non-techie, consumer market and the rest is history.
HTC never really seemed to come near being an industry leader ever since. They've at best kept up with Samsung and Apple and Moto and LG, etc. but they've never really bested any of them in an undeniable way. I'm left wondering if the resources of their company just weren't sufficient to compete when larger companies with more product diversity came to take on the same market.