HTC Developing Own Smartphone Operating System

By Jane McEntegart
published

HTC is hoping to launch its own smartphone OS in China.

Though the company is known for making the first ever Android smartphone, it seems HTC wants to branch out with its own smartphone operating system. The Wall Street Journal cites people familiar with the project who say HTC is working on its own smartphone operating system for the Chinese market.

WSJ's sources say HTC Chairwoman Cher Wang is overseeing the development of the OS, and HTC apparently hopes to introduce it before the end of the year. Though details about the operating system are thin, there will supposedly be tight integration with popular Chinese apps, including Weibo.

Though the news is surprising, it's not totally out of left field. The company said in April of 2010 that it was considering its own smartphone software. Speaking to Bloomberg at the time, HTC CFO Cheng Hui-ming said that there were many factors to consider when it came to own-brand smartphone software. If the WSJ is to be believed, they've considered all the factors and are going full-steam ahead with an OS.

With the Sense UI, HTC has already shown that it likes to put its own flavor on smartphones. Is a full-fledged HTC next?

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Jane McEntegart
17 Comments Comment from the forums
  • house70
    From other sites one can learn that the Chinese govt. is involved in this new OS development. That alone clarifies that this OS is solely intended for Chinese market, not international.
    So no, this is NOT an attempt to launch an entirely new OS worldwide. Remain calm, people. I suspect this one will also be based on Android (if I remember correctly I read about it somewhere else), but it will be only directed towards the Chinese market.
    Reply
  • Murissokah
    11444011 said:
    From other sites one can learn that the Chinese govt. is involved in this new OS development. That alone clarifies that this OS is solely intended for Chinese market, not international.
    So no, this is NOT an attempt to launch an entirely new OS worldwide. Remain calm, people. I suspect this one will also be based on Android (if I remember correctly I read about it somewhere else), but it will be only directed towards the Chinese market.

    I was thinking "cause that worked so well for Nokia and Blackberry", but now it makes sense. Chinese market alone is big enough to justify this, and their government is the big brother type, so it makes perfect sense.
    Reply
  • Bloob
    Please HTC, just use Sailfish or Ubuntu.
    Reply
  • digiex
    Just a case of China want to be independent of Western influence.
    Reply
  • Camikazi
    I hope HTC is careful about what they are doing, especially if they plan on using Android as a base. Acer found out that while Google is happy to help any company and to give their programs open-source do NOT break their rules. One wrong move by HTC and Google could be gone leaving them stranded.
    Reply
  • captaincharisma
    even if it is for just the Chinese market good luck getting developers to support yet another mobile OS
    Reply
  • g-unit1111
    11445781 said:
    even if it is for just the Chinese market good luck getting developers to support yet another mobile OS

    Seriously! We have iOS, Android, Ubunutu Phone, Windows Phone 8, Firefox OS, Blackberry 10, the list goes on. Make it stop already!!
    Reply
  • back_by_demand
    Seeing as China has 14% of the worlds population, if they all went HTC over the combined others they could potentially grab 2nd place in the world and still not sell a single handset outside their own country. China is a huge market.
    Reply
  • NightLight
    i hope they stay with android on the high end phones, or my next one will be a samsung!
    Reply
  • house70
    11446565 said:
    i hope they stay with android on the high end phones, or my next one will be a samsung!

    They will, unless they really have a suicidal tendency.
    Reply