iPhones are for oldies – HTC Chief

HTC chief Martin Fichter set the net abuzz with his comments at the mobile future forward conference in Seattle. Quite surprisingly, Fichter put in efforts towards studying competitor iPhone rather than his own company’s phones. And by study we mean he went around and asked a few questions to his daughter’s collegemates. 

Here are Fichter’s candid comments – “ None of them has an iPhone, because they told me: ‘my dad has an iPhone’.

The iPhone becomes a little less cool than it was. They were HTCs. They were carrying Samsungs. They were even carrying some Chinese manufacturers.”

He further added – “ Macbook airs are cool. iPhones are not cool any more. We are using iPhones, but our kids don’t find them cool any more.”

Fichter’s comments need to be examined carefully before arriving at any conclusions. iPhone manufacturer Apple replaced Nokia as the top mobile manufacturer this year, thanks to the same device, so, evidently, Mr. Fichter needs to get his stats right.

He ends up calling Macbook Airs as cool, because they do not compete with him in the market.

HTC is one of the major Android-based manufacturers competing with Apple. Fichter’s comments indicate that HTC is trying to take a bite of Apple’s pie.

With 4% market share in the phone market, iPhone still remains the reigning phone. While we would praise HTC for its Sensation and Desire handsets, it still needs more than stray comments to come anywhere near the iPhone.

Commenting about one’s market rivals has become the flavor of the season. In fact, Fichter’s comments come after Nokia CEO Stephen Elop commented that he saw ‘signs of danger ahead’ for Android based operators and manufacturers after the Google – Motorola deal.