Google May Be Purchasing HTC's Smartphone Business

Megalith

Megalith

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In a report outlining HTC’s August revenues, which happen to be the lowest in 13 years, DigiTimes refers to a report by Commercial Times indicating that the company is already in the final stages of selling its smartphone business to Google. The deal will not involve HTC’s VR division.

…HTC reportedly has entered the final stage of negotiation with Google for selling its smartphone business unit to the Internet service operator, according a Chinese-language Commercial Times report. Google is currently considering options of either becoming a strategic partner or buying out HTC's smartphone business, said the report, which added that the possible deal will not involve HTC's Vive VR business or the entire company.
 
Hopefully this just = HTC phones running stock Android or (essentially the same thing) there will be more Pixel phones on the way from HTC.
 
jardows said:
Didn't they try this when thy bought Motorola? What makes this any different?
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HTC makes the pixel phone already. I don't believe motorola made a google branded device until after being bought.

More than likely they will do what they did last time:

1) Buy the company and secure any IP rights and patents.
2) Produce their own branded lineup using the company.
3) Use 2 as leverage to negotiate advantageous pricing from their next manufacturing partner.
4) Sell off the branding to recoup some of the costs of the acquisition.
 
Google needs to make up their damned minds regarding what they want to do.


They bought Motorola, then sold it.

Now they are buying HTC's phone division. Is it for keeps?

My understanding is that the Motorola purchase was really just for the patents. Does HTC hold a lot of important patents too?
 
Idk it seems HTC has lost their competitive edge these last few years. Maybe this is for the best?
 
Crimson said:
To be honest I like my HTC U11, oh and fuck Samsung with their "Edge" and bloated software.
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I'm happy with my Note 5 but I don't see how you're supposed to hold a phone when the screen goes to the edges.

If I were to upgrade right now, I'd lean toward the U11 and it's Alexa integration. Other than one off features like that, I think most smart phones these days are plenty fine.
 
I like the U11. My only gripe with it is that it's not running stock Android. I want or need anything else integrated - put that stuff in the app store.
At this point it's looking like the larger Pixel 2 will be share a lot of similarities to the U11. That can't be a coincidence.
 
Domingo said:
I like the U11. My only gripe with it is that it's not running stock Android. I want or need anything else integrated - put that stuff in the app store.
At this point it's looking like the larger Pixel 2 will be share a lot of similarities to the U11. That can't be a coincidence.
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I use OMJ's rom on my U11, LINK.

gxp500 said:
To be honest i like my Samsung S8, oh and fuck htc and their bloated bezel's.
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Well if you keep it close to you balls you might get an "explosion". One more thing, unlike Samsung when you squeeze HTC U11's bezel something magically happens.
 
Crimson said:
To be honest I like my HTC U11, oh and fuck Samsung with their "Edge" and bloated software.
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I always thought my wife's s6 edge was pretty snazzy looking and I liked the time being there. The other day we saw an ad scrolling down the side lol.. so I don't quite feel the same about it now.
 
gxp500 said:
To be honest i like my Samsung S8, oh and fuck htc and their bloated bezel's.
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The only reason I would laugh at your comment is this: Most folks end up needing to use a case which negates the thin bezels.
 
ManofGod said:
The only reason I would laugh at your comment is this: Most folks end up needing to use a case which negates the thin bezels.
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A lot of cases account for it...

I really like Samsungs camera, their glass body sucks imo

I really like HTC metal bodies, why Samsung has to use glass on the back is beyond me. I have to assume some functional purpose cause if its just for looks stupid as hell.
 
Even with a case, it's not like it really needs to cover more than a few millimeters on the front of the phone. It's really the raised portion that protects the screen anyway.
Normal bezels are one thing, but some phones still have excessively large bezels. The smaller Pixel comes to mind. For a phone from 2016 it's rocking bezels from the iPhone 4 era. We don't all need bezel-free displays, but to take up that much real estate there should at least be stereo speakers.
 
dandirk said:
A lot of cases account for it...

I really like Samsungs camera, their glass body sucks imo

I really like HTC metal bodies, why Samsung has to use glass on the back is beyond me. I have to assume some functional purpose cause if its just for looks stupid as hell.
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Might have something to do with metals being more radio-opaque than glass and plastics? An attempt to get better reception maybe?

Other than that it's just moronic. Added fragility where none is needed for the sake of transparency, and a finger print magnet.

If I had a choice of phone material, it would be some sort of rubberized grippy matte black texture. I tried spraying a case with black plasti-dip once, but I could never get it to last more than a couple of weeks before it rubbed off...
 
I can't recall which model it was, but Moto had a phone that was housed in a grippy Kevlar shell. It was maybe 4-5 years ago, but it was pretty damned cool.
The Galaxy "Active" models tend to have rubberized grips on the sides and a built-in raised lip on the front as well. If they weren't Samsung devices I'd probably buy one of those again.
 
ManofGod said:
The only reason I would laugh at your comment is this: Most folks end up needing to use a case which negates the thin bezels.
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My stupid comment simply highlighted his stupid comment, nothing more. People who go around and say fuck Samsung/apple/whoever are simply missing a few brain cells.
 
More than likely, Samsung has chosen glass for ease of manufacturing, improved radio reception, scratch resistance and wireless charging capabilities. Also, aluminum isn't exactly the best material for smart phones. I'd like to see more ceramics and carbon fiber smart phones, but the manufacturing process for both are expensive.
 
dandirk said:
A lot of cases account for it...

I really like Samsungs camera, their glass body sucks imo

I really like HTC metal bodies, why Samsung has to use glass on the back is beyond me. I have to assume some functional purpose cause if its just for looks stupid as hell.
Click to expand...

Wireless charging. Same reason the next iPhones will also have glass backs again.
 
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