Meet Taiwan's HTC: iPhone's 'quiet' challenger

BEIJING — East Asia is the world's electronics factory, yet unless they are Japanese, producers are largely anonymous. Now HTC Corp., a Taiwanese maker of smart phones, is moving out of the shadows and trying to establish its own brand name as it competes with Apple's iPhone.
HTC supplies U.S. carriers Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile but says a year ago only one in 10 Americans knew its name. With the help of marketing by cellular carriers and HTC's own television ads during the World Series, HTC says that number is up to 40 percent.

"We want to be one of the leaders," said John Wang, the 13-year-old company's chief marketing officer.

HTC's path to its own brand has been complicated by U.S. carriers' preference for many years to market its phones under their own brands.

That started to change in 2007, and the "HTC" brand started showing up on phones, as carriers figured that the company had some cachet among early adopters that they could capitalize on. HTC phones on the U.S. market include the Droid Incredible, sold by Verizon Wireless; the HD2, sold by T-Mobile USA; and the Hero, sold by Sprint Nextel Corp.

Even now, HTC is careful to avoid straining ties with carriers by promoting its own identity too aggressively. Such ties are crucial in the United States, Japan and other markets where carriers usually pick which phones to offer. In Europe and elsewhere, customers pick their own phones and buy service separately.

"I don't think it should ever become a 'destination phone,' because that is very arrogant," Wang said.

The company's slogan, "Quietly Brilliant," expresses both modesty and pride.

Apple, of course, is anything but quiet, and HTC sets itself apart from the U.S.-based giant in other ways, too.

A study in contrasts

In contrast to look-alike iPhones, HTC tries to make handsets for every taste, some with slide-out keyboards, others with touch screens. While Apple has its own online store, HTC focuses on phones while carriers pick which music and applications to offer.

"This is positioning the vendor almost diametrically against the increasing perception of Apple as an egotistical and domineering company," Seth Wallis-Jones, an analyst for IHS Global Insight, said in an e-mail.

In the U.S., HTC made a splash this summer by producing the first phone, the EVO 4G, that's able to use a fourth-generation wireless data network. It's sold by Sprint. HTC also manufactured Google Inc.'s first phone, the Nexus One.

"These really put the brand into the spotlight in the United States," Wallis-Jones said.

Still, Apple has a daunting sales lead and HTC also faces competition from South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co., Nokia Corp. and other rivals.

HTC was just behind Apple in the final quarter of 2008, selling 3.7 million phones to its rival's 4.4 million, according to Wallis-Jones. Apple has since pulled ahead, selling 8.4 million in the second quarter of this year, while HTC sold 5.4 million.

But HTC is seeing its sales jump. It expects to ship 6.5 million phones in the current quarter, more than twice the number it shipped in the same period last year.

HTC promotes itself as a cross-border brand, with no mention of its Taiwanese roots.

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