“Martin Fichter, the acting president of HTC America, appeared today at the Mobile Future Forward conference in downtown Seattle,” John Cook reports for GeekWire. “And the Bellevue wireless executive shared some interesting insights on everything from Windows Phone 7 to the ongoing wireless patent wars to why college kids — at least in his recent survey at Reed College — don’t think iPhones are cool anymore.”
Apple is innovating. Samsung is innovating. We are innovating. Everybody is innovating. And everybody is doing different things for the end consumers. I brought my daughter back to college — she’s down in Portland at Reed — and I talked to a few of the kids on her floor. And none of them has an iPhone because they told me: ‘My dad has an iPhone.’ There’s an interesting thing that’s going on in the market. The iPhone becomes a little less cool than it was. They were carrying HTCs. They were carrying Samsungs. They were even carrying some Chinese manufacture’s devices. If you look at a college campus, Mac Book Airs are cool. iPhones are not that cool anymore. We here are using iPhones, but our kids don’t find them that cool anymore. – Martin Fichter, acting president, HTC America
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Reed? No wonder Steve dropped out after only one semester.
You know what’s really uncool? Lying about innovating and then capping it off with a weak-ass, ginned-up anecdote that the market proves utterly untrue every single minute of every single day.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews readers too numerous to mention individually for the heads up.]
Followup study reveals other things teens consider uncool because “dad has them”:
Car
House
College Degree
Job
Income
Great answer
don’t forget food.
Also…
> but our kids don’t find them that cool anymore.
Since when do “kids” define what is “cool” for the majority of customers? Microsoft tried to appeal to the younger part of the market with Kin (and Zune), and that failed utterly to appeal to anyone. I mean, I didn’t want to be the people portrayed in that marketing. So good luck to HTC, if that’s their strategy.
Beautifully put……………..
LOL
Go into any mall, any movie theater, any airplane and you will see tons of iPhones and a quite a few Android phones and a couple blackberries and the only reason there are so many Androids is because they are giving them away. If the cost the same as the iPhone, there’d be even more iPhones.
If you can’t beat them, lie about them and hope people believe you I guess.
Another reason – the iPhone is not yet available on their carrier. (They may still be on Mom & Dad’s family plan.)
I know what you mean. I’m a Machead through and through but currently have an HTC Wildfire- which I really like actually. It costs me a tenner a month from T Mobile with a great talk time/text/internet package. The cheapest iPhone deal I can find here in the UK is still at least three times that.
I lol’ed. Reed college definitely = all college kids, right?
Reed College is the one that Steve Jobs dropped out of.
Since when has HTC known anything about “cool”?
FINALLY someone at HTC has taken a stand and reminded us about what is cool and what isn’t.
Thank you, Martin Fichter.
After reading this article, I feel bad for his daughter.
Not that he’s a bad dad (seriously) but because everyone is going to be waving their iPhones at her. (or something that vibrates..,,)
Yes that’s why my three teenage boys all whom have 3GS iPhones are wanting the iPhone 4 or the next model. Sure my wife and I each have the iPhone 4. But to say the iPhones are not neat, new, and have that wow factor anymore. Is a bit of a laugh! All three of my boys have offered to camp out on release night of the next iPhone. One is a year away from college. So I better warn him that iPhones are not cool anymore.
Oh wait he was also with me in line over night for the iPhone 4. I guess it just depends on what college campus and if the parents in top of affording tuition can also purchase the best phones for their kids. I won’t sacrifice quality with my kids and expect them to have the same standards as I do. So iPhones it will be.
… and if he’s right, there won’t be any queues of people lining up to buy the next iPhone.
We’ll just have to wait and see.
My kid is in well known private college and he has an iPhone, most of his friends have iPhones, and he report that the ones who have Android phones WANT iPhones. How’s that for an anecdote?
Yes, but do their iPhones have a statistically significant Coolness Factor within the 18 to 21 year old consumer contingent relative to the same Android consumer contingent? And what Attribute Factors are responsible for the resulting Coolness scoring within these classifications? Is, in fact, anecdotal hearsay an adequate source of data to allow performing these analyses?
We’re waiting for your answer Mr. Fichter… 😯
Hahaha, I bet Steve calls up Reed’s President and asks him what the stats are on their campus network, to verify what Mr. HTC states anecdotally.
As for “cool”, “cool” has no staying power. “cool” is pejorative. It’s a put-down, because “cool” is just what’s in fashion today, and out-of-fashion tomorrow. The iPhone was NEVER “cool”, because the iPhone has practical benefits that are amazing, and timeless. People who don’t get Apple, think it’s down to marketing, or Steve’s RDF, or some notion of “cool”. Mr. HTC doesn’t get it.
Or, to put it another way, great battery life is “cool”. Great app selection is “cool”. Great user interface is “cool”. Great usability is “cool”. Not having to worry about accidentally downloading a lot of malware apps is “cool”.
By this scale, how many “cool” points do HTC’s devices have, exactly? I would say, not many!
Actually what they told him was “My dad has an iPhone. I don’t have a job or money to buy my own iPhone. That’s what I really want. Since he’s paying for my education and expenses he got me a cheap phone for now. When he upgrades I’ll get his old iPhone. Can’t wait.” He just quit listening to them when he heard what he wanted to hear.
the HTC guy probably misunderstood, the kids actually said:
“my dad bought an iPhone and gave me his old %$#@ HTC, Dad! That’s not cool! “.
@ Dave –
THAT is funny
Oh yes, the boss of the HTC America division… So much power in a Taiwanese company. LOL!
You know he is making this up… No college age kid is going to use the word “cool” to describe anything… He screws up his whole story by using a word from his generation… He’s not even a good liar … What a boob… He should understand that…. It’s from his generation!
Perhaps he wanted to say hip instead of cool.
…or 23 skidoo
Groovy
bitchin’, or tubular
This guy MUST be smoking something very very illegal…
This message from Mr. “L-7” himself.
+1
One of the dumbest observation of an executive. Thank goodness he works for HTC. He’ll make for a fine addition to the crew of clueless executives. lol
I would like to know at what school this dolt got his MBA.
Let’s go burn it down!
Reed College?
Didn’t Steve Jobs decide that Reed College isn’t cool, back in 1972?
Is this some kind of payback?
I’m not surprised actually. When something becomes as ubiquitous as the iPhone has, it’s not cool anymore. 🙂 That’s why Apple keeps upping the ante…. the next one is right around the corner.
Personally, I think this war between smart phones and which is better is actually kind of stupid. They are all good phones and some are great substitutes for others. For example: if you want a phone that is able to browse the web smoothly, two great phones to choose from would be the iPhone and the Galaxy S. Both actually get the job done as expected. However, the choice of which phone you think is better depends on you and whatever reasons you have for choosing it. I for one, really have no problem with HTC phones. However, the reason I choose iPhone over HTC has nothing to do with the phone or the brand. What is driving me away from HTC phones is Android and its malware venerability. Obviously, to me, security is an important factor which is why I choose iPhone.
Now other people may have different reasons. Some may want android because they have had it for a long time and don’t want to bother trying iOS. Others may choose android just cuz they have a verity of choices for a lower price tag than the iPhone. And maybe others are just fanboys/girls that put down a certain device that is not made by a certain company and cant stand the existance of such a thing. The reasons for people to prefer one over the other is an ongoing list.
One more thing: your information is far from accurate. The iPhone is popular worldwide. You can’t generalize that the iPhone itself is no longer popular because some people in a college campus prefer other brands. The world’s entire population is not contained in that college campus you visited. It’s only a tiny, unnoticeable percent of it.
My kids can’t wait till iPhone 5 comes out so they can get my year old iPhone 4. Thats how “uncool” it is.
I ask again…..how is it that they pay these bozo CEOs so much and how is it they can get these jobs in the first place?
Another example, I used to work at a startup company that became quite well to do in the dot com era,…(yes we actually had a product and yes we were actually making quite a profit with 70% gross margins)….but we had this CEO that kept thinking we were CISCO or something and kept blowing billions on buying dud companies. To this day I keep thinking how is it that this bozo ran our company to the ground when any of us original members could have done a better job. You can add Bartz, Ballmer, Apotheker(sp) and the two 1/2 CEO’s to the list. Sorry, a bit off topic but I just had to get that off my chest.
Stop copying them then
What an astonishing coincidence! The kids don’t think iPhones are cool anymore, they all carry iPhone’s competitors’ phones, and HE just happens to be an iPhone competitor!! Wow, what are the chances?!
I kinda see what he is saying, sorta.
At work if someone has an iphone there isn’t much to talk about unless its jailbroken. Otherwise its just like every other iphone.
If its an android, well we got all sorts of stuff to chat about including comparing features, rooting tech and other stupid crap.
I wouldn’t use my coworkers as a metric for the overall “coolness” of the iphone though. I just assume the iphone users at work have lives and better things to do than rooting and rom modding.
Yes my life is this pathetic
iPhones are BEYOND cool, dweeb, WAY beyond mere cool.
… whistling past the graveyard.
Sorry, Mr. Fichter, but I really don’t care whether a phone, mp3 player, computer, car, dishwasher etc., is “cool.” All I care about is does do what I need/want it to, and is it a good value for the price. I do prefer my beer cool, however, that is, around 50° to 55° F.
It’s official! Real captivating design is not cool anymore. Neither is aluminum & glass. Only plastic look alike devices are cool. So why does Apple keep putting all this money into a quality product when it’s plastic that’s REALLY cool?
Right. And next Mr. “I’m Totally Hip To All The Action” will tell us that HTC is really “groovy” and “far out, man.” Peace.
“We here are using iPhones… – Martin Fichter, acting president, HTC America”
So Mr. Fichter, the acting president of HTC America, uses an iPhone? Hmmmm…. Interesting… very interesting…
BWAHAHAHAHA!
Terribly revealing.
Hey Martin Fichter:
You’re bummin’ me out wit’ yo jive.
Cool it baby!
Get down, get groovy and get cool man. 😎
He sounds like another clueless CEO clone. His manner of speaking sounds rather like Ballmer. Maybe he also needs to stay in place for as long at it takes.
I think this is pretty cool…
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/09/mini-monsters-ipad-app/
OK, so it’s for iPad. It’s still pretty cool.
He’s full of shit. Reedies using second-rate copies of the Real Thing? Yeah, right.
Oh, and Jobs did drop out of Reed, but he stayed on for a while auditing a calligraphy class. That eventually carried over into Apple computers – the first to display fonts properly.
He’s right, the iPhone isn’t that cool anymore.
Do you know what *is* cool?
100 Million+ iPhones.
I guess that is why your daughter and chums are in school.
They are stupid and need educating!
When, or if, they graduate, they will be wise shoppers! Okay Grasshopper!
Yeah I agree… HTC phones ARE COOL!
As in NOT SO HOT!!!
Do the kids wear belts in their saggy pants at Reed?
Just wondering since they can only afford crap like HTC, and are are dumb enough to say the iPhone wasn’t cool.
But hey that crowd has a different definition of what is cool.
Well that settles it.
Since a few kids have anecdotally been quoted as saying the iPhone isn’t cool anymore, someone should notify Apple to only make a small number of the new iPhones.
HTC = Have This Crap
Now that is cool, “have this crap”.
HTC = short for HOTCHA!
Poor girl, gonna get ridiculed for having a cheap ass father..
ASSHAT!!!
Let kids find them “uncool”.
It just means more is available for us geezers.
Martin Fichter… watch you back. Stupidity is stalking you, and your love ones. It will not give up until you and your love ones “fade away”… 🙂
HTC Boss puts foot in mouth and gags.
just cuz some college emo douche at an off-brand school likes an android doesn’t mean itz cool… puhleeeeeze
HTC Boss = Cartman’s mom.
i am currently touring around Italy at the moment and do you know what I see all the kids using here? Yep…iPhones. Guess Italian kids are not cool….unlike the 3 or 4 kids in his survey at a no name college who clearly define what is cool for the rest of the world.
What a dumbass….
Funny how this sort of delusional thinking starts to absorb the brain cells of anyone working for the opposition and cant compete on other levels.
mdn’s take pretty weak and mediocre. Full of bias and not witty at all.
Take 9to5mac’s take for example: “They also have no interest in dad’s Porsche.”
Yeah Reed. Not only did Steve Jobs ditch Reed, but they hired one of our dufus marketing rejects to work for them.
What a douche. You know what’s cool Mr. HTC? The thousands of quality apps on the iOS platform. As someone that’s used Android and Windows Phone I keep coming back to iOS. It’s the apps stupid. Go play with your weather widgets.
I live on a marine corps base so it is filled with a bunch of junior marines(18-24) with nothing to spend their money on but expensive electronics and the trend is getting HTCs and Motorolas, the more popular being the HTC evo and Droid X. So far I have seen about 5 WP7s including my own, and there are not as many iPhones. But among the senior marines(30+) the iPhone is a little more popular. And pretty much junior marines are laughed at by their peers for having iPhones because it “sucks” and is not cool any more, and its not like us junior marines cant afford a iphone, we have no bills to pay, its that most of us just do not want one, if we can afford to get EVOs and Droid Xs then we can afford an iPhone 4, but are we getting iPhone 4s? Well from what I see only a small percent
Competitors Just Don’t get it. in 2001, when everyone continued to declare the PC the winner in computer wars, Apple released the iPod. When the iPod took off and everyone else was trying to compete, Apple released the iPhone. When everyone else started to “Catch up” Apple released the iPad. All the while, the mac has been sneaking up in market share. When the tech media declares that someone has caught up with Apple, they seem to come out with the next big thing, and then it starts over. Maybe someday, competitors will actually skate to where the puck is going to be.
The loser’s daughter’s friends happen to have HTCs. Wow a f’n joke!
Thats a concrete as saying a friend of a friend said…
HTC is pathetic and drowning.
Wait wait WAIT….
ACTING president? WTF is that??
Im the ACTING Prime Minister of CANADA! I AM REAL! hahaha BS! When we were kids, we were all ACTING to be someone were not…. didnt make it REAL
HHAAHHA
Yup the fashion is out dated it’s uncool to copy.
How interesting. So the kids nowadays hate the original but are completely nuts over its clones
It’s good HTC has a clueless executive running it’s America division. His focus group for what is cool and not cool consists of his daughters small circle of friends. Funny.
Is it any wonder everyone I know wants my GSII with it’s awesome speed and it didn’t need to be modded, rooted or overclocked to faster, better, smoother, and more intuitive than iPhones. To prove that, it’s now become a World where Apple is behind the curve and copying over 20 key features that have been in Android for a long time!!!
Macs are still cool, because they at least give you the freedom to run Windows. Which is the only way I can run most of my key Apps. I rarely buy any (if ever) iApps for OS-X and I’d still never buy the Mac version of a game, when they still don’t have the best ones even available. Not to mention the fact that rarely can the hardware even come close to what I can put together in either a Hackintosh dual boot computer or a straight up Windows Box with all the latest innovations!