Handset manufacturer HTC, which makes branded phone for OEMs and operators, including the Orange SPV among others, has said it will also start to market phones under the HTC brand.
HTC will provide its new branded products to its existing Qtek channels, distributors, enterprise and operators, who do not carry operator-branded products. The manufacturer reasons that migrating the Qtek brand to the new HTC brand identity will enable HTC to provide better direct support to those customers.
The first devices to be offered with HTC brand are the HTC TyTN and the HTC MTeoR. These case-confused devices will be available from late July. The TyTN is a tri-band UMTS phone and features Windows Mobile 5.0 functionality such as Direct Push email.
The MTeoR, is being marketed by HTC as the world’s first Windows Mobile 5.0 3G smartphone.
Peter Chou, ceo of HTC, said the company would continue to service its OEM and operator customers.
“Our operator and OEM strategy remains key, and we are committed to further strengthening our partner relationships by providing customised and differentiated offerings,” he said.
Pieter Knook, Senior Vice President, mobile & embedded devices division, Microsoft, said an HTC brand would “being more choice to Windows Mobile customers”.
HTC’s decision to bridge the ODM/ OEM divide marks an increasing trend from white label manufacturers to try to extract more value by offering branded products direct to the market. For software providers such as Microsoft, it offers another route to the all-important mid-market.
