Gloom & Doom for HTC; Plus Microsoft Suggests Windows & Android Dual-boot HTC Phones

[dgstorm]

Just in case you were unclear just how bad things have become for HTC, here are the most current facts. First, the company finally hemorrhaged enough money that it posted its first operating loss, based upon a steep decline in summer sales of devices. Here's a quick quote with the relevant details,

For the quarter ending in September, HTC reported a net loss of NT$2.97 billion (USD $101 million) on sales of NT$4.7 billion (USD $1.6 billion), a worse result than the consensus forecast of a NT$2.2 billion loss on sales of NT$54 billion. Bloomberg says that HTC’s smartphone business is getting whacked both in the high-end market, where its HTC One model was delayed in many places until after the release of the Galaxy S4, and the low-end market where it has considerably less presence than low-cost Android vendors such as Xiaomi. ~ BGR

In fact, if that doesn't paint a bleak enough picture, to put things in perspective, HTC has lost 90% of its market value in just two years time. Furthermore, so far, whenever any company in the mobile world begins operating at a loss they have never recovered. Here's a quote from industry analyst Asymco’s Horace Dediu,

“The observation I have been making is that once a company begins to generate negative operating margins from phone sales, that phone business never recovers. The question then becomes one of gauging how long they have before the business is sold, dissolved or merged.”

Finally, just to show you how desperate things have become, Microsoft is now courting HTC suggesting the company offer Windows Phone 8 as a dual-boot option on their phones with Android devices. In fact, reports suggest that Microsoft is even willing to forego their usual licensing fees for using Windows Phone and allow HTC to use it for free. Of course, this also expresses how desperate Microsoft has become to try and get competitive in the mobile world as well.

The idea is not without a tiny inkling of merit. It would allow HTC to offer a phone which would stand out from the crowd (if only slightly), and it would help Microsoft get their mobile OS onto more devices and in front of more users. Supposedly, HTC is warming up to the idea and is working out the logistics of making that happen on their devices.

Sadly, it's hard to see how this move will make much difference for either company.

Source: TechCrunch

 

[kodiak799]

If it has enough horsepower (and storage), I'd be all over a dual-boot phone. Seems a bit premature for the hardware, though. I'd want 8 gigs of ram, a quad-core cpu, and 128gigs of internal storage (plus an SD). I'd want full Windows, and that's a beast requiring a lot of storage space.

I'd say HTC should jump on this and focus on the enterprise market. But such a focus flopped for Moto. Perhaps MS/Windows could be the difference.

 

[bazar6]

With that MS deal, the best part is no licensing fees. That'd mean only hardware costs for HTC. Would AOSP and Google allow one device to be sold with an option to dual boot two competing OS' though? I know Google and AOSP are different entities, but OEM's have to go through an approval process to get the Google Apps and Play Store on their devices... I wonder if the agreements say anything about a different OS being on the same machine?

 

[Narsil]

I'm with Kodiak on this one. Give me a full W8 phone with Android dual-boot and it would be a seriously hard decision between that and my Note 2.

 

[xeene]

i'd pay $700 out of pocket for dual boot device with a LARGE battery. i've yet to see a single htc device with enough power to last me 1/4 day without a charge.

 

[cereal killer]

2 of my favorite mobile OS's on ONE phone I'd really have no use for a dual boot phone to be perfectly honest. WP and Android do everything I need, so for me it just comes down to which boat I want to jump into. I see where MS is going with this (introduces a wider audience to WP) and it can only help them. Google may not be so happy with this move though. It's not a secret that they are not so fond of Microsoft...

 

[akhenax]

2 of my favorite mobile OS's on ONE phone I'd really have no use for a dual boot phone to be perfectly honest. WP and Android do everything I need, so for me it just comes down to which boat I want to jump into. I see where MS is going with this (introduces a wider audience to WP) and it can only help them. Google may not be so happy with this move though. It's not a secret that they are not so fond of Microsoft...

This.

Also, if HTC could create a dual boot device, I'd imagine some awesome developer figuring out the Boot Rom process and porting it to other devices.
I for one would love to be able to run WP8 on my Gnex

 

[nickb34]

... I wonder if the agreements say anything about a different OS being on the same machine?

This should cover what you are talking about, though I guess they aren't necessarily directly competing...

Amazon.com: ASUS Transformer AiO P1801-B037K 18.4-Inch Desktop: Computers & Accessories

 

[kodiak799]

Imagine with enough horsepower you wouldn't even need dual boot - Win8 could probably run virtual Android in some sort of way. Although it doesn't really matter. I'd only be booting Win when I wanted to plug in a monitor and keyboard and have myself a sort of mobile workstation.

All that said, you can imagine this phone would be locked down tighter than Fort Knox

 

[boidsonly]

This is nothing more than M$ furthering its market share at the expense of HTC.

 

[azules9780]

I would be interested, seriously interested in a dualboot phone! I wish they would do it because I'd buy it.

 

[shockracer]

I would be willing to buy one, Windows 8 has its perks (on mobile devices not on a desktop).