Try as I might not to pick favorites when it comes to phones and manufacturers, I will always have a soft spot for HTC. HTC was in its prime when I first started dabbling with smartphones, and it made up a significant number of my devices in those earlier years. The HTC Snap, Touch Diamond, MyTouch 3G Slide, Evo 4G, and Evo 3D are all devices that I used as my daily driver at one point or another and still remain as some of my favorites (except for the Snap, which I still loathe).
The Evo 3D was my last Android device before switching to the iPhone 4S for a couple of years. I was encouraged to upgrade to it from my Evo 4G because the processor was faster and the 3D was supposedly the next “great thing” to happen in mobile tech. Obviously, it wasn’t, and on top of that, the 3D effect gave me a headache. I wasn’t nearly as impressed as I had hoped to be, so it wasn’t hard for the iPhone 4S to win me over like it did.
In the following 2 years, however, both Android and HTC underwent some major evolutionary changes. Android became more stable, and HTC made the decision to release significantly fewer smartphones in 2013. In 2012, the company released at least a dozen models of phones that they apparently had trouble maintaining, so the decision to release just a few phones in 2013 seemed like a good decision for the company.
And it was. The HTC One (M7) was one of the best Android devices to come out that year. The M7 had both brains and beauty, a rarity for Android devices at the time, and really made it seem as if things were on the up and up for HTC. The One M7 was also one of the first devices to dabble with various sizes of the “same” device with the HTC One Mini and HTC One Max, a common theme we still see in phones today.
The M7’s successor, the M8, also fared relatively well. It still had the same aluminum unibody design, although curiously HTC opted to keep the controversial 4-megapixel “UltraPixel” camera from the M7, which didn’t seem to do it any favors. On the plus side, the company brought back the microSD card slot, which was omitted from the M7. Overall, the M8 was still a pretty good device.
The M9 is where things went south. The design was almost identical to the M8 and the camera, which changed from the “UltraPixel” to a more traditional 20-megapixel sensor, still didn’t perform that well upon launch. People just didn’t seem as impressed with the M9 as they had been with the previous two devices.
Fortunately, the HTC 10 made up for the M9’s shortcomings the following year. I still consider the HTC 10 one of the better devices of 2016; unfortunately, it was so good at being completely adequate that nobody seemed to pay much attention to it.
In between all the Ones, there were several mid-range Desires released as well, which is all well and fine because it’s pretty easy to distinguish between the One flagships and the mid-range Desires by name.
But then we get to this year and things get confusing again with the HTC U Ultra, U Play, U11, U11 Life, U11+, One X10. However, it would appear that HTC intends to clean things up again in 2018 with yet another promise to release fewer devices.
I’m no marketing expert, so I could be wrong, but I don’t think the number of devices is HTC’s problem anymore. I think the bigger issue is staying consistent with naming conventions. I had no idea what was what this year, especially when the company released the U Ultra before the U11. I figured the U Ultra was the flagship until the U11 showed up, and even then I wasn’t sure whether the U11 was the follow-up to the 10 or not. The One X10, which seems like the most logical name for a follow-up to the HTC 10, ended up being a random mid-range offering.
I think the phrase “A rose is a rose by any other name” doesn’t apply to smartphones; people look for consistency in naming conventions, like Samsung Galaxy, Apple iPhone, LG G, Galaxy Note, and even Sony Xperia. HTC doesn’t have a solid track record with any name over an extended period of time, which makes it easy to forget.
I’m not saying releasing fewer phones won’t work because it’s worked in the past, but I also think HTC could use a rebranding of sorts. Or maybe just go back to Evo. I don’t know about you, but I really liked that name. And maybe bring back the kickstand too, because those were very well-built into earlier HTC devices.
Readers, what are your thoughts on this decision from HTC? Do you think releasing fewer phones will help the company rebound from their slump? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
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