“HTC Corp., the beleaguered manufacturer that once ranked among the world’s top smartphone makers, is returning to its roots to piece together Google’s latest phones with no trace of its own brand,” Selina Wang and Mark Gurman report for Bloomberg. “The Taiwanese company is the designated assembler for Google’s new handsets — the Pixel and larger Pixel XL — unveiled on Tuesday.”
“The deal likely means the end of the six-year-old Nexus program, a co-branding effort that outsourced the majority of hardware development to other smartphone makers, including HTC,” Wang and Gurman report. “The deal with the Alphabet Inc. unit is a strategy rewind of sorts for HTC. Founded in 1997, HTC began as a contract manufacturer. In 2002, it won a contract with Microsoft Corp. to make Windows-based phones and quickly became one of the top producers globally. It also made the first Android phone in 2008.”
“The shifting relationship with Google, based in Mountain View, California, comes after a brutal period for HTC. HTC’s smartphone market share dwindled to 1.3 percent in 2015 from 9.2 percent in 2011,” Wang and Gurman report. “‘HTC is excited to work with Google to create the new Pixel smartphones,’ HTC spokesman Jeff Gordon wrote in an e-mailed statement. ‘Google and HTC have a long and storied history together.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Yeah, Google and HTC have a long and storied history of blatantly stealing Apple’s intellectual property and knocking off Apple’s industrial design.
Here’s what Google’s Android looked like before and after Apple’s iPhone:
And, here’s what cellphones looked like before and after Apple’s iPhone:
People who buy Android phones and tablets reward thieves.
SEE ALSO:
Google announces Google-branded iPhone knockoffs, again – October 4, 2016
Why Google really, truly, deeply hates Apple – May 30, 2014
Prior to Steve Jobs unveiling of Apple’s iPhone, Google’s Android didn’t support touchscreen input – April 14, 2014
Before iPhone, Google’s plan was a Java button phone, Android docs reveal – April 14, 2014
How Google reacted when Steve Jobs revealed the revolutionary iPhone – December 19, 2013
Apple to ITC: Android started at Apple while Andy Rubin worked for us – September 2, 2011
Genuinely shocked that peterloony71 is not here to gloat about their inevitable failure.
However I am NOT shocked your the same clueless idiot goofball you’ve always been. You have your own personal troll tradition of moronity to uphold.
It looks like exactly like an iphone. Cameras in the same place and everything.
Can I also say peterloony71 is a turd too?
Thanks
F the trolls
Anonymous posters do not get any credibility here, especially if they’re the same troll. Go munch some carpet that preferably has been pooped on.
I’ve read plenty of other comments from people that think you’re a dick. Aint just me
Uhh yeah, it’s the same troll(s). You’re in fact a troll (go ahead, take a look in the mirror – ugly ain’t it?). Anybody like yourself that posts names we’ve never seen before or after are just here to stir up trouble being brain dead pariahs and social misfits. And you know something, YOU DON’T FOOL ANYBODY. Sure there may be some people who don’t like me but NOBODY likes you.
In fact carpetmuncher & Loonspotter are the same agitating troll moron. Talk about a MAJOR loon.
Oh and going to a lot of computers and accounts to down vote me just shows what a pathetic & desperate multiple-identity troll you are.
Wow dickweed, THREE replies. I didn’t respond so you kept posting HAhahahahahahahaha
sad sad sad bud, so so sad
My name in any forum is the same
You need to change yours to sword swallower
I have one laptop
you cannot vote more than 1 time on a computer
You need a shrink.. badly
Troll, take a hike or better yet a long walk on a short plank. The only thing you’re looking for is the next act of adolescent stupidity you can perform.
Hey sword swallower
Nothing there made a bit of sense
I can swim, very well fyi
Not adolescent
Don’t give a flying F what you think
Looks like many people agree that you are a twat
Feeling is extremely mutual. Only trolls (or your other identities) like you would agree with you mostly because they don’t like being routed & ratted out. You offer nothing to this site worth having so why don’t you make like a tree and leave? You can’t believe how much more peaceful, civil and useful it gets around here without your sociopathic type around leaving their steaming POS.
STILL replying to me?
Hahaha
Idiot
I’ll say it again sword swallower, I have just one name, this one You hear voices in your head too?
YeahI’m on this site alot, but not much in the comments because I know that brainless idiots like you are here
FU troll
I understand – you’re a boy troll. And you keep doing what trolls do. You’re trying to desperately shift the focus away from your inherent stupidity and transparently heinous purpose. Which is not to contribute in any meaningful way here but cause trouble and insult people. Right troll? You add nothing here but adolescent taunting. Grow up.
Say you ever notice neither you nor carpetbagger, I mean muncher, are never seen on the MDN site with lucid and intelligent mature posts that don’t have anything to do with attacking somebody? The very definition of troll, troll.
Must have been chasing the blue iPhone 7 rumor with the blue one!…lol
Uhhh… Blue is a Google primary color. It permeates Google.
I checked out the keynote. It’s actually an impressively cohesive line of products coming out of Google. Apple’s been chasing profits for too long, if you ask me. Because their profits all come from the iPhone, they can’t afford to take risks with it.
I love Apple, but seriously… I think this attempt from Google to compete will hit Apple squarely and directly.
It all looks a bit half-baked – and I really don’t want google or Amazon always listening to all my conversations.. If you think that it doesn’t always listen your are sadly mistaken.
There is a mike mute button on the Google Home.. But you’ll just have to trust that it is working. LOL
Nice that they are promoting playing music off of Youtube – Guess artists will be losing more money. Should never be allowed.
“MacDailyNews Take: Yeah, Google and HTC have a long and storied history of blatantly stealing Apple’s intellectual property and knocking off Apple’s industrial design.”
Actually, MDN, get down off your self righteous horse and remember the facts. HTC agree to license Apple’s design patents, and Apple did enter into a license agreement with HTC for some of those patents.
Don’t lump HTC into the same pile as Google (Alphabet) or Samsung over the patent issue. Neither Google nor Samsung has had any real, valid interest in licensing any disputed patents from Apple.
However, it is a bit sad that HTC decided to go for the money rather than ethics, but given HTC’s current state, it is not at all surprising.
Will be fun trying to unlock the phone when it s sitting on your desk. You will always have to pick it up to try to rub your finger on the back. So stupid.
There are multiple ways you can unlock your phone, one of which is the fingerprint sensor. The others you can set are PIN, pattern, face recognition, location and trusted bluetooth proximity.