对许多美国消费者来说，宏达电(HTC)这个招牌或许还未到如雷贯耳的地步，但现在，从办公室到家庭，已经有愈来愈多人开始使用这家来自台湾的公司所制造的电话了。 HTC 也是让英特尔(Intel)、高通(Qualcomm)、德州仪器(TI)甚至其它零件供货商在拿不到苹果(Apple)订单之际，却仍能看到未来的关键因素之一。
接下来几年，你会听到更多有关 HTC 的消息，任何人都应该更加关注这家公司。这家企业在过去5年内从默默无闻窜升为消费电子产业中最具竞争力的厂商，透过与电信业者结盟和发展自有品牌，HTC已经在智能手机市场建立了稳固地位。
这个产业可以从HTC的快速崛起学到一些经验，但这家公司可能还必须借鉴一些竞争对手的历史，以避免日后重蹈覆辙。
HTC最初是凭借着为电信业者提供ODM品牌产品服务而成长。电信业者能透过这类产品获得较高利润，在1997~2006年之间，HTC藉由为电信业者提供ODM服务，成为该领域中的可靠合作伙伴，并大幅提高了其设计能力。包括与Verizon、T-Mobile、Sprint、Orange和NTT DoCoMo等电信业者的伙伴关系，都让HTC能充份运用其知识基础做为设计概念，分担研发成本，并避免了在进入此一高度敏感市场之初的庞大入门行销成本。
这种合作关系在大型供货商之间并不常见。像苹果、摩托罗拉(Motorola)和诺基亚(Nokia)这类大型企业，通常都独自负担研发费用，而且仅透露简单的产品蓝图给电信业者，更遑论共同开发了。苹果更是从不与电信业者谈论产品蓝图细节。基本上，苹果开发产品并不是以消费者意见为基础，iPhone获得的巨大成功，更强化了该公司不需要第三方意见的信念。
这个策略对苹果有效，或许对其他公司也能奏效──只要一家企业也能像苹果般赢得消费者的崇拜。但HTC则凭借着自有的设计团队，以及来自电信客户端的反馈，在智能手机市场跨出了一大步。在2006年开始推出自有品牌产品后，这家公司以大量具吸引力的产品线迅速在智能手机市场扩张。事实上，其产品名称也展现出了这家公司在竞争对手环伺下仍大胆前进的勇气。
例如HTC Sensation 4G，已经成为该公司最抢手的热门产品之一。Sensation和其它系列产品如Amaze, myTouch, Wildfire 和 Droid Incredible 等，让HTC悄悄在这个严峻的市场中立稳脚步，而没有招至太多竞争对手的注意。然而，HTC现在要不被注意很难，特别是苹果和三星(Samsung)，都已开始将三星视为必须迅速击退的隐形对手。
这也是为何必须密切观察HTC。Forst & Sullivan的分析师Saverio Romeo在一封邮件中描述了这家公司所面临的挑战：
三年前，我问HTC：“你们的品牌在哪里？”答案是：“你就快看到它了。”从HTC不久前在伦敦的The Roundhouse举办的活动中，我也看到了这个问题的答案。HTC CEO 周永明在这场于The Roundhouse举办的HTC Sensation XE发表会中表示，HTC提出了一种特殊的行动应用和行动生活型态。而所谓的行动生活型态，是以创新的设计和技术所带来的行动体验为基础所建立的。
我对这个问题也有自己的答案。毫无疑问，HTC是当前行动设备世界的主角之一。而我的下一个问题是：“HTC智能手机品牌的未来发展方向在哪里？”如果HTC希望成为行动生活型态的供货商，那么，仅仅提供产品是不够的。
HTC的下一步是什么？它瞄准的市场在何方？消费市场中的OEM业者和其它电子市场现在都已经知道这个来自台湾的隐藏版战士了。智能手机市场即将展开新一波竞争，不仅仅是HTC，还有更多新的竞争者预计将快速浮出台面。这个领域的惊喜已经结束了，真正的战争，由此展开。
编译： Joy Teng
本文授权编译自EBN Online，版权所有，谢绝转载
参考英文原文： HTC: The Stealth Warrior，by Bolaji Ojo, Editor in Chief
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HTC: The Stealth Warrior
Bolaji Ojo, Editor in Chief
Do you know High Tech Computer Corp. (HTC) (Taiwan: 2498)? The name may not ring a bell for many consumers, but chances are that someone in your office or even in your family is making or receiving a phone call on a device from the Taiwanese company right now. HTC is also one of the prime reasons why many components suppliers, including Intel, Qualcomm, and Texas Instruments, see a future for themselves in the sector even without scoring a design win at Apple.
You'll be hearing more about HTC in coming years and should keep the company on your radar. Rather quietly, it has penetrated one of the most competitive segments of the consumer electronics industry over the last five years, steadily building up market share in smartphones, first via partnerships with telecommunication services providers and then with its own branded offerings.
The industry can learn some lessons from the rapid growth of HTC, but the company also may want to review the history of some competitors to know the pitfalls that lie ahead.
HTC grew initially by serving as an ODM making branded products for telecom companies. The telcos could get a higher margin on such products, and HTC used its years as an ODM (1997 to 2006) to burnish its own reputation as a reliable partner and vastly improve its design skills. The partnerships with telcos like Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint, Orange, and NTT DoCoMo allowed HTC to tap their knowledge base for design concepts, share R&D costs, and avoid the huge startup and marketing costs associated with entry into such a highly sensitive market.
Such partnerships aren't common with the larger vendors. Companies like Apple, Motorola, and Nokia typically carry development costs alone and simply share product roadmaps with telecom companies rather than jointly develop such offerings. Apple doesn't even discuss details of its product roadmaps with telecom carriers. The company makes a point of not soliciting customer input, and the enormous success of its iPhone has further reinforced the belief it doesn't need third-party contributions.
That strategy works for Apple, and it may be a model for other companies, too -- as long as they keep on winning customer devotion. HTC, in the meantime, is straddling the line by pumping out products based on telco feedback, its own internal design teams, and customer input. After launching its own branded products in 2006, the company has flooded the smartphone market with a wide range of appealing products. In fact, the names for its offerings demonstrate a willingness to be daring while hewing closely to offerings from rivals.
The HTC Sensation 4G, for instance, is a widely sought-after product, and so is the HTC Thunderbolt. Both these and other HTC products (Amaze, myTouch, Wildfire, and the Droid Incredible) have allowed HTC to quietly establish a presence in the tough market without drawing too much negative attention from its heavyweight rivals. But such attention is inevitable and has arrived, with Apple and Samsung especially beginning to see HTC as a stealth rival that must be quickly repelled.
This is why what HTC does next is being closely monitored. Frost & Sullivan analyst Saverio Romeo best summed up the challenge facing the company in an email:
Three years ago I asked HTC: 'Where is your brand?' They answered: 'It will come'. At the recent HTC party at The Roundhouse in London, I could see the answer to that question. Today, HTC represents a specific mobile style, mobile lifestyle as Peter Chou, the CEO, highlighted during the press conference at The Roundhouse launching the HTC Sensation XE. That mobile lifestyle is built around delivering a mobile experience made of design and technological innovation.
I have the answer to my question. Without doubts, HTC is one of the protagonists in the world of mobile devices. My next question to them will then be: 'Which is the future direction of an established smartphone brand like HTC?' If HTC wants to be a mobile lifestyle provider, and I know the term provider is not very stylish, probably, devices are not enough.
What will HTC come up with tomorrow, and which markets will it next invade? The OEMs in consumer and adjacent electronics markets are now aware of the stealth warrior from Taiwan. So, the next moves will come, not only from HTC, but also from the rivals that didn't at first see its fast approach. The surprise is over; let the real war begin.
