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Google Is Apparently Ready To Buy Smartphone Maker HTC (cnbc.com)
According to a Taiwanese news outlet called Commercial Times, Google is in the final stages of acquiring all or part of smartphone maker HTC. CNBC reports: The report seems fishy, since Google has already been down this road, but there's a reason why Google might be interested in HTC. The Taiwanese company builds the Google Pixel, which means it could be a good fit for Google as it continues to cater to consumers with its "Pixel" smartphone brand. Here's where it sounds off base: Google acquired Motorola Mobility and then sold it off just a couple of years later. Why repeat that move? Commercial Times said HTC's poor financial position and Google's desire to "perfect [the] integration of software, content, hardware, network, cloud, [and] AI," is the driving force behind Google's interest. The news outlet said Google may make a "strategic investment" or "buy HTC's smartphone R&D team" which suggests that the VR team would exist as its own.
Google acquired Motorola Mobility and then sold it off just a couple of years later. Why repeat that move?
First, Motorola was a patent play. Google gained much protection by buying the patent portfolio.
Second, Google's tried the 3rd party vendor route and gotten shit products out of it and continues watching Apple reap 95% of the mobile profit. Pixel was an attempt by Google to create a realistic competitor that would actually help them. Now that the Pixel appears realistic, Google needs more control to keep up with Apple who is ahead in many areas. (Hint, there's a reason besides fanboism that Apple has 95% of the profits)
Google buying HTC outright will have another immediate effect - Samsung's profits. Unless Samsung takes a page out of the same book and creates their own OS dev team and branches Android into their own offering.
The cesspool just got a check and balance.
They will take the best engineers, patents and then leave it for dead. Just like most of Googles acquisitions. Google should buy Slashdot, since it is Google shill central anyway.
It would be interesting to see how Google would take HTC forward if this turns out to be true. The problem these days is that "journalists" do very little actual fact checking. A rumor winds up as a story on some sleepy site where it's then picked up by more mainstream media outlets who also don't bother fact checking it.
Very interesting.
*Record scratch*
*High budget CGI dazzle sauce*
*dumfounded consumer opens wallet*
My eyes reflect the stars and a smile lights up my face.
Google should buy Google, so they can shut it down in a few years.
Meanwhile, I won't buy a phone with a screen smaller than 5.7 I use mine as a portable PC moreso than phone. Everyone else has been going the same direction. Hence the popularity of big phones. The pixel was too small and too expensive for me to look at it.
They had Motorola. Did fuck all with it.
Absolutely not. An iPhone is only a status symbol to poor people in the trailer parks who don't know any better.
There IS a reason besides fanboyism that Apple has 95% of the profits, and it's tightly integrated software and hardware solutions that do what they're supposed to, all day every day.
Sure, an iPhone isn't as exciting or cutting edge in some regards as some of the flashy gimmicky Android toys out there (the ones that cost just as much as an iPhone, mind you). Just like a Toyota Camry isn't as exciting as a Dodge Challenger R/T, but guess which one makes more money? The vast majority of people just want a usable and reliable mobile product.
Sure, an iPhone costs more than an entry-level $150 Android. It's also not a piece of shit like every entry-level $150 Android. But the Android phones that actually compete with iPhones cost nearly as much and you still get much less as far as usability and hardware quality is concerned.
The Google purchase is for the unprofitable phone part only - HTC is looking to keep the Vive part of the company, from what we've been hearing.
There IS a reason besides fanboyism that Apple has 95% of the profits, and it's tightly integrated software and hardware solutions that do what they're supposed to, all day every day.
No, the reason is a 30% cut of every sale from the marketplace and doing their utmost best at preventing purchases through anything but the marketplace. It's called a walled garden. Apple could give away it's phones and barely dent its profits.
Also those "gimmicky" Android "toys" as you call them? They're introducing the features the next gen iPhone will sell you at a 300% markup and make you feel like you're an innovator for it.
Try being a little less of an Apple fanboy. They make a decent product, at a massive markup, and do their best to keep you locked into it. They have their downsides too, like changing adapter ports for no discernible reason other than getting to sell you all new accessories every few generations, complete lack of repairability, no SD cards, that smug sense of false superiority that makes it's users so so punchable because they fall for marketing bull.
3. Keep offering updates after more than 2 or 3 years, especially when phones can last 5 years or more and are still perfectly usable. It's unpleasant to stop getting updates so soon. Support these phones for at least 6 years. Make it easy for Android users to run the latest version of the OS on older phones, even if some functionality may be limited, so app developers don't have to support 5 or more different Android versions just to get decent coverage of the market!
This item has very little to do with their HTC acquisition, and it isn't going to happen because of it.
First of all, Google does not release Android builds for OEM handsets. Realistically, they can't. Project Treble includes a HAL for Android which should make upgrades easier in the future. This is a new feature in Oreo, however, so it doesn't apply to anything currently on the market.
Second, developers can target multiple versions of Android fairly easily. The Android SDK allows you to specify both a minimum version and a target version of Android. When doing this, you are limited to the feature set of the oldest version, but the application will automatically benefit from the target-level APIs on devices that support them. Obviously this doesn't apply to code built outside of the SDK, but if you're doing that then you already accepted the headaches associated with that decision.
And finally, it is the OEM's responsibility to support the phone for a reasonable lifespan, not Google's. Any OS update runs the risk of breaking proprietary features and other customizations. The manufacturer of the device is the only one who can fix those problems, so ultimately they must be involved in order for normal users to have a realistic upgrade path---and the OEMs have a financial incentive to keep users on the upgrade treadmill.
If you really want a better Android ecosystem, support vendors who deliver vanilla Android devices and promise/deliver long-term support. I'm leaning heavily toward Nokia for my next phone because they are doing the former and have a reputation for the latter. The new Nokia appears to be a relatively intact version of the pre-Microsoft Nokia.
Google, please just give us a well-balanced Android phone that's convenient to hold and use, that's reasonably affordable, and that will continue to get updates beyond a couple of years!
This I can agree with.
Your other comments can be applied on a device-by-device basis, and I largely agree with those too. Hopefully Google will manage future Nexus/Pixel products in a more tech-friendly way.
I would like to see longer support for their devices. If Project Treble works as expected, then maybe the 5X, 6P, and Pixel will be the first smartphones to have that 5-year lifespan.
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According to the latest ruleset, this post should be modded as Vorpal Flamebait +5.
Having played with Google Glass I have to say it's pretty cool in many respects, there's certainly some first and some potential - but it's not much. By the time you're done with the new it's a creeper cam with head-mounted caller ID and an awkward Bluetooth headset.
HTC's V.R. team has a great head-mounted video game display that's not useful for all the time / daily wear.
Put these two together and see if you can make something genuinely useful in a real-world environment without making the wearers look like glass-holes.
The preceding post was not a Slashvertisement.
Sounds more like rumours spread around by shareholders attempting to keep the market value up while they cash out before HTF folds.
Hey HTC support! Remember when I & others told you that abandoning support for your phones mere months after suddenly EOLing them was going to get you removed from everyone's supplier lists?
Democracy is a sheep and two wolves deciding what to have for lunch. Freedom is a well armed sheep contesting the issue
Personally, I have a $250 Android phone and it's fine.
My wife has a $150 Android phone and she's happy with it.
As much as people want to claim that cheap smartphones are worthless, for many people, they aren't. All I need from my smartphone is the ability to read email, browse the web, play a few games, run some business apps, read some books, etc.
If lenovo keeps eating up all the phone manufacturers, then that would be bad for competition. Comcast would probably buy it.
Was that supposed to be funny?
That's interesting because I know and work with hundreds of people who own iPhones and none of them view or pass it off as a status symbol. In my experience, the only people who make it out like anyone thinks an iPhone is a status symbol are butthurt Fandroids who think everyone should only buy the phone they approve of.
Apple has sold more than 100 million of iPhones a year since 2012. That would hardly qualify as a "niche" customer base.
If you do not, already, know that your perfect phone exists, and where to buy it, then having Google make one will not fix your inability to scan the market and find it now.
But, to pick a few nits:
- Reasonable size; 5 inches, or 5.5? That's a fairly big stretch. Be specific, or bigger will be better.
- Six years of OS updates is not merely pointless (the OS will grow beyond your phone's capacity in 3 years) but specious. Your battery will not last six years.
- Oh, and a replaceable battery, making the sis year OS update promise feasible.
- Oh, and 3GB RAM MINIMUM, to make your six year OS updates feasible. 4GB really.
- After four years there will only be, at best, three-year-old batteries on the shelf to be purchased. You want one of these?
- If you are serious about GUI and video capabilities, those phones exist right now. Be prepared to buy one from the same site that sells incontinence supplies, but you don't care, you just want the phone.
A Vivo 5 or 5R seems close to what you wanted, sans replaceable battery. Or a Blade V8 Pro. I can do this all morning, your phone exists, just not with the Google logo on it. Or suck it up and go for an iPhone SE, reasonable screen size and a screwdriver almost changes the battery by itself, and the iOS universe isn't quite as bleak as it used to be, since rooting your V8 Pro isn't nearly as much fun as it could be, but then you probably don;t need Android Pay or any enterprise apps, so feh, root on bro.
Full disclosure, I've owned An Oki 123 bag phone, NEC 820, Nokia 5165 (fabulous), Siemens S46 (Satan's personal phone, Sony T637 (way ahead of its time), BlackBerry 7105t, HTC G1, Sensation 4G, M7, M8, Blu R1HD (underrated stopgap phone), and now a U11.
I'm waiting for the foldup phone, not a flip but an actual folding screen. And GB LTE, proximity charging, and wireless cast capability. Walk into the house and my fantasy phone would ask if I want to cast to the nearest screen, charge within a few feet of a proximity charger, and pair up the keyboard/mouse on the countertop, shared with other phones just by me entering my PIN and it's mine for now. Wireless LTE being faster than my ISP, I don't have one. Netflix, etc is my entertainment provider, OTA HD is cast back to my phone and is *the only reason* I have a home ISP, this TV has Tivo/Sling functionality built in, along with PVR and casts to my phone. Apps for work live within this. Voice integration is completed. I can dream.
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
... of reference phone options at Project Fi. At one time, the HTC One was the Fi reference phone, and I had one, and it was pretty good, but not nearly as good as what they put together with the Motorola Nexus... my current handset. I'm actually pretty happy to get this news. I hope they're able to evolve the Pixel line forward and continue to demonstrate what pure Android can do.
.. pa-ra-bo-la, pa-ra-bo-la, 2 pi R, 2 pi R, where's your latus rectum, where's your latus rectum, 2 pi R
Toriel, is that you?
They have their downsides too, like changing adapter ports for no discernible reason other than getting to sell you all new accessories every few generations,
No reason other than your lack of understanding you mean. Apple changed their connector 8 years after iPod and 5 years after using it on the iPhone. The new connector is smaller and can be inserted either way. But progress is no reason change the connector according to you. [sarcasm]Unlike Android phones which never changed their adapter in that time other than: mini-USB B, micro-USB B, micro-USB B SuperSpeed plug, USB-C. Also proprietary chargers only used on specific brand/models. Other than those variations, Android phones have never changed their chargers in that time.[/sarcasm]
complete lack of repairability
[sarcasm]Yes because every Android phone is completely repairable**[/sarcasm]
**except the following models
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
Google basically paid $10B for Motorola's patents. (Bought the company for $12B, sold it for $2B sans patents). I imagine the same is basically true for HTC. But the rationale is different this time. The patent wars are basically over now, so Google is likely be buying HTC's patents to keep them out of the hands of someone else.
Sorry, but Samsung proved people want big phones with the original Galaxy Note.
The success caused every other major manufacturer to offer jumbo versions in the coming years. Even Apple followed suit.
Even the non-jumbo phones have been growing in size. The Galaxy S has grown in size and also has a + variant now.
Your stats come from 3rd world / ghetto budget phones and old devices. Which ties in precisely to your stat about old versions of Android.
Small phones suck.
Nope. "Normal" screen size refers to the physical size - around 4 inches.
Look at your chart again: Most of those screens have "hdpi" or "xhdpi" pixel density, ie' they're more than 640x480.
But yeah, I'd love a 4" screen with full HD resolution. Nobody sells them though, because .... oooh, squirrel.
No sig today...
The goal of the Nexus line was to offer a moderately priced and fairly capable phone running a clean/standard version of Android for development use.
See the Nexus One. Of course, ever since then they've been creeping on features, price, and Googleifying the clean/standard version of Android. The Pixel was the final "FUCK YOU". They're making Google iPhones now, not Android phones (let alone AOSP phones).
Physical keyboard goodness!
Not exactly. Parse the data - 23% own Android 7 and later, only 11% have large screens. So less than half of Android 7+ users have large screens. simplistic, yes, but supported by the numbers, and that's an optimistic view that only Android 7+ users have large screens.
That's not to disprove your statement that Samsung did prove there was a reasonable profitable market for larger phones.
The cesspool just got a check and balance.
Google sold Motorola at a $10 billion loss! Motorola had arguably better hardware design teams and arguably similar manufacturing capability as HTC. I've love to hear the argument from Google execs as to how and what they will do differently this time. And yes, I know Motorola was a patent play, but that still doesn't answer my question of how they will fix the mismanagement of the hardware teams.
My daughter bought a Pixel. It's pretty.
It has hardware flaws (easily cracked board), crashes.
That makes a great device for $600
Maybe they can fix the HTC garbage. My other daughter has an LG Nexus, that's a decent product for 1/2 the price.
If they buy HTC, good luck.
Uh, according to that link, 7 and 7.1 make up 13.5%, not 23%.
Additionally, screen size category is reported by the device, and is arbitrary, and the labels are relative.
Thus as screens grow larger on average, the reporting of the size diminishes. That is, 2012's "large" phone is today's "normal" phone.
"Each generalized size and density spans a range of actual screen sizes and densities. For example, two devices that both report a screen size of normal might have actual screen sizes and aspect ratios that are slightly different when measured by hand. Similarly, two devices that report a screen density of hdpi might have real pixel densities that are slightly different. Android makes these differences abstract to applications, so you can provide UI designed for the generalized sizes and densities and let the system handle any final adjustments as necessary. "
The fact that so many people complain about not being able to find a good, "normal" sized phone is testament to that fact. Screen sizes are growing, and that's happening because people prefer larger screens. Apple resisted for years. The iPhone was the perfect size. Then they caved to market pressure.
There's plenty of companies offering huge screens. In fact, "normal-sized screens" are the rare ones.
#DeleteFacebook
Not funny, just... well, Google is into marketing. Maybe they could do something that, "HTCP vs HTTP".
#DeleteFacebook
Rosewill/Newegg or Intel or Kingston or Supermicro [,,,] that's the most maintainable, longest-lasting, best-value computer that you can get. No Dell or Apple customer will ever have it so good, so easy, so dependable, so long-lasting, or so reliable.
If phones were like that, everyone would be happy instead of sad.
I searched the brand names you provided, and most of them appear to be servers and desktops. True, servers and desktops can be like that. But in order for phones to have a chance of being like that, laptops first have to be like that.
Uh, according to that link, 7 and 7.1 make up 13.5%, not 23%
I did state that the assumption was an optimistic one. ;)
Screen sizes are growing, and that's happening because people prefer larger screens. Apple resisted for years. The iPhone was the perfect size. Then they caved to market pressure.
And then they came right back and offered a smaller size again, which sells like hotcakes. Not everyone wants a tablet in their pocket. That said, I like the slightly larger 6, and don't know which way I'll go on the next upgrade.
The cesspool just got a check and balance.
Additionally, screen size category is reported by the device, and is arbitrary, and the labels are relative.
Thus as screens grow larger on average, the reporting of the size diminishes. That is, 2012's "large" phone is today's "normal" phone.
Have you got cites on that - that the labels are growing? According to the developer's guide, screen sizes are defined as:
xlarge screens are at least 960dp x 720dp
large screens are at least 640dp x 480dp
normal screens are at least 470dp x 320dp
small screens are at least 426dp x 320dp
A dp is 1/160 of an inch long - hence, the referenced sizes are absolute, not relative. As sizes increase, we can expect to see new standards for extra-large, extra-extra-large, etc. (The same applied to resolution values).
A dip or dp is a unit of distance (1/160"), not a unit of density. A 'normal' phone phone starts at around 3" (470/160), a 'large' phone at 4" (640/160).