Last week, HTC signaled that it might develop a wearable device and release it this year.
I, for one, hope this doesn’t happen. I asked HTC for comment, and got this response:
“HTC Chairman Cher Wang has stated that HTC intends to introduce a wearable device by this year’s Christmas shopping season. While we know there is excitement for HTC to provide more information, this is all the detail we can provide at this time.”
HTC has been coy since an interview with Bloomberg
in which Ms. Wang suggested the company had cracked the issues of
battery life and LCD lighting that have plagued other smart watch
releases. Ms. Wang did not comment, though, on the possibility that few
people actually want smart watches as much as the consumer
electronics industry thought they might, regardless of whether that
watch has a nice long battery life or a more readable screen.
HTC is in a precarious position, but with
hope on the horizon. Its flagship phone, the One, has been a critical
success and it has become a cult favorite among Android phone fans. But
at the end of 2013, executives were fleeing the company and there were
significant doubts about its ability to survive.
Now, I’d argue, HTC has good will on its side. People like an underdog, especially when that underdog makes a cool phone that takes great photos, has a pleasing and unique metal construction, and isn’t what everyone else owns.
Expectations are high for the One’s
successor, reputed to be called either the M8 or the, uh, One Two. With
the right marketing campaign — one that will be helped by a $12 million
deal with the indisputably cool Robert Downey Jr. — HTC could start a
strong comeback in 2014.
The company also plans to release more low-priced phones
in 2014 to appeal to budget-conscious buyers and emerging markets. If
HTC can keep quality up on these phones (something that’s been a problem
in the past, and contributed to a bad consumer reputation), that’s a
solid strategy that emulates Samsung’s blanket-the-world-with-phones
approach to building market share.
But releasing a wearable could be a diversion
into an unproven market at a time when focus has never been more
crucial. The company’s comments feel at once like a hedge against the
possibility that Apple may release a watch in 2014 — a rumor second in
persistence only to the Apple TV idea — and also like an attempt to
prove it can keep up with its Android rivals Samsung and LG.
Samsung reportedly plans to release a Galaxy Gear 2
smart watch, possibly alongside the Galaxy S5. This despite a mixed
reception for the Galaxy Gear: Sales figures were muddy (the company
said it shipped 800,000 devices
in two months, but it’s unclear how many watches actually were sold),
and reports last October suggested that as many as 30 percent of buyers returned the device after taking it home. Critics generally disliked it.
Nevertheless, Samsung blanketed airwaves and
billboard with Gear ads, and one can expect the same treatment with a
Galaxy Gear 2 device — something HTC would be hard-pressed to counter.
Meanwhile, LG announced the LifeBand Touch
at CES in January, a fitness band with smart watch capabilities and
even heart rate-sending earphones, expected to be introduced this
spring. (Well, “expected” may be a bit strong; CES announcements are
notoriously vaporous.)
I’m not entirely convinced LG’s device is a
good idea, either, but at least LG has a deep bench of products and a
history of manufacturing everything from robot vacuums to washer-dryer
sets to TVs to phones. HTC is barely alive making smartphones, and now
has a chance to rebuild a crumbling brand on the strength of a really
good phone.
What do consumers want? Really good phones.
They have not demonstrated, at least in large numbers, a desire for a
matching smart watch.
HTC should stay on target. Build it, get Iron
Man to sell it, and perhaps they will come. Build a smart watch that
gets lost in a crowd of other mediocre watches, and they almost
certainly will not.