I've owned 2x Nexus One, 2x HTC Magic (one myTouch 3G and one Google Ion dev device) and finally a myTouch 4G (Essentially 1 HTC phone from each generation of device they have produced).<p>I have never enjoyed my HTC devices; they have never worked smoothly, never had some sort of minor or major hardware problem (Nexus One's screen used to have snow like an old TV, myTouch 4G out of the box required a factory reset to work correctly), working with HTC support directly was as painful as using Microsoft Xbox Live support[1] and the "HTC Sense" customized Android experience has always been bloated and of course, un-removable.<p>I disagree with comments like Raphael's about HTC simply not having that "jesus phone" to put them on the map; they have plenty of spec-perfect phones, the problem is their phone experience is a combination of incomplete/slow software mixed with spotty hardware that didn't spend enough time in the QA lab because the company is growing so quickly.<p>There was another announcement 2 weeks ago about HTC's sales dipping due to "inferior devices" and I couldn't have been happier to see that specific point actually spelled out for the first time as opposed to Engadget or Gizmodo praising the newest HTC device as the "best Android device we've seen on the market" - I cannot read that phrase without rolling my eyes anymore. I think I've read that phrase about 9 phones this year...<p>HTC has been enjoying growing at a break-neck speed and continue to ride that Android wave; you see the stress cracks in everything they do if you are actually putting your money down for their cutting edge devices.<p>Their older devices may fare better. I have a friend with a myTouch 4G that he picked up a year after launch and said he has no problems with it and battery life is solid.<p>The next time there is an HTC device announced that you think looks interesting, read the forums for the device for the first week and I <i>guarantee</i> you will find complaints about hardware and software bugs (screen problems, camera not working right, battery life unexplainably short, etc. etc.)<p>I don't meant to hand-wave with a bunch of negativity here... I've just been in the HTC camp for a long time now and they have never not been a pain in my side or made me regret my purchase.<p>Without writing a wikipedia page worth of reference links I am trying to convey to others the joy of owning a cutting-edge HTC device.<p>Argh.<p>[1] <a href="http://www.thebuzzmedia.com/my-experience-with-htc-nexus-one-support-was-mediocre/" rel="nofollow">http://www.thebuzzmedia.com/my-experience-with-htc-nexus-one...</a>
Of course HTC sales have fallen. Everyone is going nuts over the Samsung Galaxy S2 and/or the iPhone 4GS and HTC simply have nothing on the market that's even near competing.<p>You look at the fact that HTC are unsure of what they want to be, creating quality apps for Sense but Android incompatible meaning that once you flash you lose the apps completely. A prime example of this is the camera app. The cameras on HTCs generally suck, but HTC get the most out of them, however once you flash, all is lost as they've attempted to close themselves off.<p>Samsung are pretty much the go-to OEM for the highest specification phones and up till now, HTC have had the build quality. However if you oversaturate the market with average phones that can't compete with high specification phones, no one will care about build quality. HTC need to concentrate on making the type of phone you buy knowing you want to flash your phone and you might drop your phone on occasion.<p>And instead of investing in companies like Beats by Dre, how about them investing in the likes of Cannon or Nikon to make up for shortfalls they have which the likes of Samsung and Apple just don't have.<p>They need to understand that less is more and that owning a HTC should not feel the same for a Wildfire owner as it does for a Sensation owner.
As the owner of a device (HTC Desire) whose manufacturer values useless, uninstallable, abandoned bloatware over OS updates, HTC won't be seeing my money, or the money of anybody who listens to my tech-related advice ever again.
I have a HTC Desire Z (which has a flip under keyboard) and my experience has been the opposite compared to what is mentioned in the other comments. Maybe I got lucky in my pick for a model, but it's very smooth, has extremely good battery life (all my friends have to charge their smartphone every night, for me it's every 3th night unless I have used it extremely much). I would easily give it a 9 out of 10
makes you wonder how 'real' the numbers before that were...<p>someone starts stuffing the channel, someone else misinterprets as actual sales, presto, a disaster.<p>is HTC a recognized brand by now? as in customer loyalty? does anyone take HTC's side against say Apple or Samsung in a fanboi fight?
One of the promises of Android was to allow manufacturers to customize the experience (to a certain degree) to the end user. I wonder if it wouldn't hurt instead of creating things like Sense UI to try to provide the best hardware that supports the reference implementation of the stock Android OS.<p>On my Google+ and Facebook feeds my friends go nuts over the various Nexuses and when I've played with them I wish I could have that experience instead of the customization that's supposed to make my life better from the manufacturers.
Strange that they're claiming HTC is losing sales to Apple. I rather expect they're losing sales to Samsung instead.<p>I've got a 1.5 year old HTC Legend, which is ... okay.