back to article HTC reflects on Champions League iPhone cock-up

HTC is recovering from the embarrassment of being unmasked as a user of the iPhone. oh dear watch the reflections To celebrate its involvement as a sponsor of this year's UEFA Champions League, HTC produced a blingtastic limited edition, 24ct gold version of the HTC One M9. And then it obviously had to take to Twitter to …

  1. TheProf
    Happy

    Happens all the time

    The BBC Click programme has just shown an item about the Samsung shipbuilding division.

    Prominent on an engineers desk was a Panasonic Toughbook laptop.

    1. Malcolm 1

      Re: Happens all the time

      Do Samsung actually make anything comparable to a Panasonic Toughbook?

      1. Dave 126 Silver badge

        Re: Happens all the time

        I don't believe so. There are less expensive competitors to the ToughBook, but the durability of its name suggests the actual models are the go-to solution for many engineers.

        It happens all the time. A TV advert for Nokia phones might be shot with Sony cameras. Until Apple made Intel-based Macs, they must have been using Windows or *nix workstations from other people for product design, since they use Unigraphics NX and AutoDesk Alias.

        Source: an Apple job advertisement.

        http://jobs.designengine.com/jobs/cad-sculptordigital-3d-modelers-levels-apple-nx-unigraphics-2/

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    See also:

    Reflectoporn

  3. djstardust

    Still in business .....

    How HTC are still in business is beyond me. Don't get me wrong there is a need for competition to keep Apple and Samsung from taking the world over but HTC just stumble from one crisis to another. The whole get a celebrity to endorse your product blew up in their face previously.

    Their phones are expensive, average and behind others spec ways so it's only a matter of time before it's bye bye.

    1. Michael Hutchinson

      Re: Still in business .....

      Have you actually used a HTC flagship in the last 3-4 years? Apart from the camera they're every bit as great as any other flagship device.

      1. Lallabalalla

        Re: Still in business .....

        Because nobody ever uses the camera on a smartphone? I use the camera on my phone all the time. I make calls.... almost never.

        1. Tenacal

          Re: Still in business .....

          And equally, not everyone cares for a top notch camera on their phone. I'd have to think back about 3 months to recall the last photo taken on my HTC.

          I'd much rather have the day-to-day workings of my phone suit me than worry about a single feature being below average.

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Still in business .....

          I use the camera on my phone all the time. I make calls.... almost never.

          Buy a cheap camera then. Fraction of the cost of a smartphone with a decent camera, and has features that the vast majority of phones will never have.

          A tripod mount, SD card and battery that can be swapped in seconds, and the most important, optical zoom. No, digital zoom is not as good. Ever.

          You also lose some things, such as no Apple/Microsoft/Google spying on your photos and no ability to install Facebook.

          Camera phone for taking photos when you have no camera. Small point and shoot Canon for parties, walks in country and diving (underwater setting, another thing you'll never get on a smartphone). DSLR for taking higher quality photos (limited by my ability and the price of the lenses etc., I'm no professional, so don't need professional grade kit).

          Of course, if your "all the time" photos are endless snaps of your breakfast, the cat, some hilarious shaped carrots in Tesco, all posted interminably to Facebook, Twitter etc., keep your phone.

          1. Triggerfish

            Re: Still in business .....

            Quality of camera has never been a consideration. I have had to use the camera on a Galaxy S2 (considered a good camera at the time) on holiday when my beloved Canon S50 (pretty ancient by then) died, and it's shit there's no way it came even close to being as good.

            Let alone the fact I spent to much time worrying about it being broken on the average day, whereas the S50 looked like it had been used for target practice.

            For me the camera on a smartphone is for a quick snap when out in a pub or something, so not crap is good enough quality.

      2. Dan 55 Silver badge

        Re: Still in business .....

        But why would anyone would want a flagship device, HTC or otherwise? You can find stuff with all the bells and whistles (removable decent battery, SD card support, decent camera, dual SIM, F2FS, LTE, 64 bit) for 250 quid or less. There's precious little any of the manufacturers bring to the Android experience before they drop support a year after launch so you might as well just stick with stock Android devices which is what these no-name manufacturers have or put CM on them.

    2. Fiddler on the roof

      Re: Still in business .....

      Disagree, I've got the M8 and its brilliant, I've had Samsungs and Apples, but its by far the best. I think the issue is they're just not sexy and I don't mean sexy looking. For me its a bit like Skoda, however good they make their cars some people will think its a skoda so it sh1t.

    3. Richie S

      Re: Still in business .....

      While I agree that HTC would benefit from better PR and marketing, I can't agree with your second paragraph.

      HTC One M9 is $200 cheaper than the 6 Edge on a rogers phone plan, and $100 cheaper than the Samsung S6.

      The specs are on par if not better than the S6 and iPhone 6 (6 plus does have better specs than the 6) with more ram, an equivalent processor, **microSD card slot**, BoomSound speakers (with Dolby surround sound, and yes, they are amazing), and an equally powerful battery (with Quick Charge 2.0).

      The camera does seem to be worse than the other flagship phones, but spec-wise it's actually better. This means that you either have to be able to take full advantage of the manual mode, or should try different camera apps to see what suits your needs. Personally I use Google Camera.

      And let's not forget the professional look of the phone. The design and feel is of a professional phone, one on which you get work done. This is something that the competitors are only just starting to mimick, but HTC has been pushing out professional-looking smartphones for years.

      If you really believe HTC is needed to prevent the Apple-Samsung duopoly, then show some support by not just jumping on the Hate-This-Company bandwagon. Don't let reviewers who spent 5 minutes with a pre-release phone convince you of how bad the phone is, go to a store and check it out yourself.

  4. big_D Silver badge

    So, marketing agency

    doesn't make all their employees working on the HTC campaign use HTC devices... Yawn.

    This is most probably an external marketing agency gaff... Maybe we'll hear a story in a few days that they have appointed a new agency?

  5. Hans 1
    Facepalm

    The reflections seem to show them using the front camera of the iphone to take the picture, not the rear one.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      I think that was an iPhone/iPad on display nearby

      Not what was used to take the picture, because no one would contort themselves to take a photo with the front camera like that. It looks like the HTCs are in some sort of display, presumably that isn't an HTC only display and includes other products.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      The reflection you are referring to is the 'front' of the phone on the left reflected in the back of the gold phone on the right. The iPhone taking the picture in question is small in the bottom right hand side of the right hand gold HTC. vis:

      https://twitter.com/VentureBeat/status/606847625413984256

      and from my reckoning is quite clearly the main rear facing camera reflected in the curve of the gold case.

  6. clarknova

    HTC Phones

    I've got an M9 following on from my M7, both have been excellent phones. Samsung phones are very plasticky, I much prefer the metal body of the HTC and if everybody buys Apple/Samsung before long there will be no choice other than those.

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