Microsoft and HTC tied their fortunes together in the emerging smartphone market a decade ago, back when people were still using acronyms like PIM and PDA. An HTC exec in 2001 called Microsoft “the best choice to help us quickly expand our business from PDA to phones, delivering another device with functionality that can’t be matched.”
Ten years later, HTC’s smartphone business is indeed soaring — as evidenced by the company at least temporarily passing Microsoft’s new partner, Nokia, in market value this week and reporting a blowout quarter earlier today.
And, of course, HTC has Google’s Android operating system to thank for it.
The latest financial results show HTC continuing to benefit from its expansion into Android, with analysts today crediting strong sales of two Android devices — Inspire 4G at AT&T and Thunderbolt at Verizon — with boosting the company’s profits.
HTC remains a Microsoft partner, supporting the company’s Windows Phone platform with a good lineup of WP7 devices. But given the history, there’s no small irony in HTC surpassing Nokia in market value now, following Microsoft’s decision to partner with Nokia.
Don’t count Microsoft out. Analysts are predicting that the Nokia deal will eventually turn Windows Phone into one of the industry leaders, even ahead of Apple’s iPhone.
But the Redmond company will need to apply the lessons from its early HTC partnership to help make the Nokia collaboration a success — specifically, by making sure that the first devices to emerge from the partnership are actually ready for prime time.
And in one final ironic twist, keep in mind that Android’s success also benefits Microsoft to some extent — thanks to the Android patent deals Microsoft has been able to wrangle with HTC and others.
Gotta love this industry.
