Taiwan’s HTC trying to establish global brand name

AP file photo shows Peter Chou, chief executive officer of Taiwan's High Tech Computer Corp., or HTC Corp., speaking to reporters in Beijing, China during the introduction of the HTC brand to China's market

BEIJING: East Asia is the world’s electronics factory, yet unless they are Japanese, producers are anonymous. Now HTC Corp., a Taiwanese maker of smart phones, is moving out of the shadows and trying to establish its own brand name as it competes with Apple’s iPhone.

HTC supplies major U.S. carriers Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile but says a year ago only one in 10 Americans knew its name. With the help of marketing by cellular carriers and HTC’s own television ads during the baseball World Series, HTC says that number is up to 40 per cent.

“We want to be one of the leaders,” said John Wang, the 13-year-old company’s chief marketing officer.

In trying to establish a global brand, HTC is following in the footsteps of another Taiwanese company, Acer Inc., which is battling Dell Inc. for the title of second-largest personal computer maker. Other rising Taiwanese technology names include software producer Trend Micro Inc. and Asustek Computer Inc., a maker of PCs and mobile phones.

HTC’s path to its own brand has been complicated by U.S. carriers’ preference for many years to market its phones under their own brands.

That started to change in 2007, and the “HTC” brand started showing up on phones, as carriers figured that the company had some cachet among early adopters that they could capitalize on. HTC phones on the U.S. market include the Droid Incredible, sold by Verizon Wireless, the HD2, sold by T-Mobile USA, and the Hero, sold by Sprint Nextel Corp.

Even now, HTC is careful to avoid straining ties with carriers by promoting its own identity too aggressively. Such ties are crucial in the United States, Japan and other markets where carriers usually pick which phones to offer. In Europe and elsewhere, customers pick their own phones and buy service separately.

“I don’t think it should ever become a ‘destination phone,’ because that is very arrogant,” Wang said.

The company’s slogan “Quietly Brilliant,” expresses both modesty – it’s “quiet” – and pride – it’s “brilliant.”

Apple, of course, is anything but quiet, and HTC sets itself apart from the U.S.-based giant in other ways, too.

In contrast to lookalike iPhones, HTC tries to make handsets for every taste, some with slide-out keyboards, others with touch screens. While Apple has its own online store, HTC focuses on phones while carriers pick which music and applications to offer.