**The Evolution of HTC: From Flagship Devices to Google Pixel Partnership**

As I sat with the new HTC U24 Pro, I couldn't help but feel a sense of nostalgia for the company's flagship devices of yesteryear. The device's design, while modern and sleek, lacked the excitement and wonder that HTC's high-end phones once brought to the table.

But what happened to HTC? How did this once-prestigious Android vendor decline so rapidly in the smartphone market? To answer these questions, let's take a trip down memory lane and explore HTC's history.

**The HTC1 M8: A Flagship Device Ahead of Its Time**

One of the most impressive features of the new HTC U24 Pro is its speakers. The fact that you get two front-firing stereo speakers is amazing, especially considering how rare this feature is in today's smartphones. Most phones are stuck with a single speaker or a speaker facing downwards, which defeats the purpose of enjoying stereo sound.

As I scavenged through our company inventory for HTC phones to film, I stumbled upon an old friend that I totally forgot existed - the HTC1 M8 Google Play edition. This version was aimed at Android purists and kept the same beautiful aluminum design and flat flagship hardware as its predecessor. But what set it apart was its stock Android operating system.

**Google's Role in HTC's Decline**

But why did HTC decline so rapidly? One major factor was its inability to keep up with the competition, particularly Apple. The iPhone dominated the market, and players like Huawei, Xiaomi, and Samsung were eating away at HTC's share. By 2016, HTC had lost 50% of its market value over two years.

However, despite this decline, HTC diversified their product lineup beyond smartphones. They looked toward VR, and in 2015, they announced the HTC Vive alongside a partnership with Valve. While not as successful as their flagship devices, the Vive became one of HTC's core products even today.

**The Legacy of HTC: Google Pixel Partnership**

But what about HTC's design legacy? It's actually lived on in the form of Google Pixel devices! You see, HTC played the long game in its relationship with Google. They manufactured that T-Mobile G1 and some Nexus devices, all the way to being Google's hardware partner for the original Google Pixel.

In a poetic twist of fate, Google ended up acquiring HTC's entire design team as well as intellectual property for smartphones in 2017 for around $1.1 billion. While this might not seem like a lot of money when considering the smartphone industry has snowballed into a $500 billion market in 2023, it was actually a saving grace for HTC.

**The Present and Future of HTC**

Today, HTC is sort of trying to come back and capitalize on people's nostalgia for the brand with a new smartphone called the U24 Pro. However, I think it's a tough sell. The specs are kind of "whatever," and it doesn't capture that sense of wonder and excitement about smartphones that I felt in 2014 with the HTC1 M8.

But all this to say that I think HTC is best kept as a legacy, a reminder of how we got here, and to appreciate just how mature smartphones have gotten. The spirit of HTC's beautiful devices lives on in the form of Google Pixel devices, which are nine generations into being one of the best smartphone brands around.

**What Do You Think?**

So, what kinds of technology are you nostalgic for? Are you longing for the good old days of flip phones or maybe the sleek design of Android's early days? Let me know in the comments below!

Thanks for watching this video on Dany Channel.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: entoday we're taking a look at some of the most beloved smartphones of all time from a brand that might have fallen off years ago but was absolutely formative to Android's popularity back in the day let's Jump Right In we can't talk about smartphone history without mentioning HTC or Hightech computer Corporation had no idea that's what it stood for but they've been around well before the debut of the original iPhone primarily specializing in pda's running Windows mobile but rather famously they were Google's partner in launching the HTC dream or as it was known in the US the T-Mobile G1 I actually have an example right here and I have no idea if it's going to turn on but the very least there's a charging light on top so hopefully if I hold down this button word let's go come on give me the that late 2000's boot sequence yeah Android the old logo look at there wow touch the Android to begin that sounds gross I mean it's very easy to forget at this point in time that this came from an era where smartphones weren't exactly the norm yet meaning they had to teach you how to use a smartphone Os Oh Boy it wants us to set up a Google account where which I believe for devices this old is kind of difficult yeah so this is the real reason why I love the T-Mobile G1 it's got a slidy screen to reveal a physical keyboard your phone is communicating with Google servers and setting up your account this may take up to 5 minutes minor problem I might need a SIM card in order to get this connected online for me to log in though let me use the internet hey yo shout out the unlocker David kogan bro this dude still makes videos today that's wild three days later all right so after a bit of trial and error I finally got the HTC G1 all up and running as you can see software-wise we are on firmware version 1.0 meaning we're pretty much running the stock firmware that came with this phone when it first launched which is super cool the early versions of Android look so different compared to what it's like today and stuff like the web browser you'll find doesn't work all that well you can look things up on Google but things like certificates and security are very outdated which definitely causes some problems for some websites having a physical keyboard on your smartphone is certainly not something you see all that often these days and I do think I type faster on a screen anyway but there is absolutely something to feeling real tactile buttons on your smartphone that feel satisfying and engaging so while using the T-Mobile G1 might not be the most practical thing to do in 2024 there is obviously a bit of nostalgia and curiosity when taking a look at a device like this in this current day and I think that's what makes it's so cool needless to say Android would become immensely successful on a global scale and HTC played a huge part of it through the early 2010s releasing a wide array of smartphones including some of the Market's Greatest Hits humongous tin foil catamaran HTC it's anything you want it to be for example here's a device that I think a lot of people on the internet get nostalgic for the HTC1 M8 which was the company's Flagship Android phone for 2014 and I think this is when they truly peaked now what's cool is that I was actually able to pick this up off of eBay supposedly brand new in box for about $58 it does seem a little sus that there are no product pictures on the box itself apart from the HTC logo but at the very least we have some text specs on the back as well as a label that says that this is in fact the HTC1 M8 interior packaging is a little questionable but as long as the phone is in somewhat decent shape I'll take it famous last words that this phone's broken but oh look at that it's all wrapped up it even has some protective plastic covering the green okay okay let's get that peel ooh clean as well yeah man this phone looks pristine and I love the design on it as well I'd argue that it holds up fairly well considering that it is a 10-year-old device the unibody aluminum construction on the 1 M8 feels very premium in the hands and especially how it's rounded on the edges makes it feel very comfortable as well Plus for the time this was considered by some critics to be the iPhone for people that want Android which is kind of funny considering that the 1 M8 came out at roughly the same time as when Apple took Samsung to court for infringing on their smartphone patents but rather than fighting the monolithic fruit company HTC actually entered in a cross licensing agreement with Apple to incorporate UI elements from the iPhone such as slide to unlock Universal search and inertial scrolling into their build of Android without the fear of lawsuits looming over their heads the details of this agreement weren't made public but it's widely assumed that it only covered the scope of software which is really interesting when you consider that the 1 M8 looks pretty similar to its iPhone counterpart if I take off my glasses these guys look pretty damn similar regardless either way this is a gorgeous smartphone through and through and it even comes down to the software this guy is running HTC Sense which was their skinned version of Android I think at the time there might have been some criticism over this being fairly bloated but sense actually had a pretty clean aesthetic for the time that brought some serious competition to iOS while still offering the flexibility and functionality that people sought from Android hell I'd even argue that some aspects of this UI even look good for 2024 standards especially with this awesome looking screen color especially on the back glass but yeah yo I got to say that the image quality out of this screen is amazing the colors especially pop so well but I think the most impressive mive thing out of this device by far at least in terms of content consumption has to be the speakers the fact that you get two frontf firing stereo speakers is amazing this is something that's especially rare these days when you consider that phones don't have foreheads and chins anymore to house speakers in the scheme of shrinking bezels you really only get like one frontf firing speaker at best with the second one facing downwards so if you want proper stereo sound you still have to cup the bottom and watch content like this which is less than ideal in my opinion now funny enough while Scavenging through our company inventory for HTC phones to film I found this guy that I totally forgot existed this is the HTC1 M8 Google Play edition this version was aimed more at the Android purist out there keeping the same beautiful aluminum design and flat Flagship Hardware but this one runs stock Android it was pretty neat that Google sold this on their website directly alongside other Google Play edition devices from other brands as well as their Nexus lineup which was Google's first party brand that came before the pixel in fact Google had worked with HTC to manufacture the first Nexus device the Nexus 1 in 2010 which is probably one of the best performing Android phones of its time and showcased all the newest software updates right from Google themselves so when you take a step back HTC might have had one of the most decorated histories among Android vendors but you don't really hear much about them these days so what exactly happened and where are they now approaching the second half of the 2010s it was clear that HTC couldn't quite keep up with the competition Apple was absolutely dominating with the the iPhone and players such as Huawei xiaomi and of course Samsung were eating up all of the precious market share around the world it said that by 2016 HTC had lost 50% of its market value over the course of 2 years for as good as the HTC1 was as a product line it simply was not enough to keep the company from losing money now as sad as that sounds there was actually some bit of good that came out of this for one HTC Diversified their product lineup Beyond smartphones and looked toward VR the HTC Vive was announced in 2015 alongside a partnership with valve and it would go on to be one of HTC's core products even today however going back to smartphones the spirit of HTC's beautiful devices actually lives on today in the form of Google pixel devices yep you heard that right you see HTC played the long game in their relationship with Google from manufacturing that T-Mobile G1 and some Nexus devices all the way to being Google's Hardware partner for the original Google pixel it's clear that both companies were very comfortable cozying up together so much so that in a poetic twist of fate Google actually ended up acquiring hdc's entire design team as well as intellectual property for smartphones in 2017 for around $1.1 billion now that might not seem like a whole lot of money when you consider that smartphones have actually snowballed into a $500 billion industry in 2023 but in some ways this was actually kind of a Saving Grace for HTC 4,000 people found new prospects within Google and the pixel brand being nine Generations in has absolutely matured into being one of the best smartphone Brands around hc's influence on the market even today cannot be overstated now it's worth noting that HTC are sort of trying to come back and capitalize on people's Nostalgia for the brand with a new smartphone called the U24 Pro but honestly I think it's kind of a tough sell quite literally this phone is mid it sits right below Flagship pricing the specs are kind of whatever it doesn't capture that sense of wonder and excitement about smartphones that I felt in 2014 with the HTC1 M8 which I get is certainly a tall order even for competitive looking devices here in 2024 but all this to say that I think HTC is best kept as a legacy a reminder of how we got here and to appreciate just how mature smartphones have gotten damn that got pretty deep but let me know what kinds of Technology are you you nostalgic for in the comments below otherwise thanks for watching this video on Dany Channeltoday we're taking a look at some of the most beloved smartphones of all time from a brand that might have fallen off years ago but was absolutely formative to Android's popularity back in the day let's Jump Right In we can't talk about smartphone history without mentioning HTC or Hightech computer Corporation had no idea that's what it stood for but they've been around well before the debut of the original iPhone primarily specializing in pda's running Windows mobile but rather famously they were Google's partner in launching the HTC dream or as it was known in the US the T-Mobile G1 I actually have an example right here and I have no idea if it's going to turn on but the very least there's a charging light on top so hopefully if I hold down this button word let's go come on give me the that late 2000's boot sequence yeah Android the old logo look at there wow touch the Android to begin that sounds gross I mean it's very easy to forget at this point in time that this came from an era where smartphones weren't exactly the norm yet meaning they had to teach you how to use a smartphone Os Oh Boy it wants us to set up a Google account where which I believe for devices this old is kind of difficult yeah so this is the real reason why I love the T-Mobile G1 it's got a slidy screen to reveal a physical keyboard your phone is communicating with Google servers and setting up your account this may take up to 5 minutes minor problem I might need a SIM card in order to get this connected online for me to log in though let me use the internet hey yo shout out the unlocker David kogan bro this dude still makes videos today that's wild three days later all right so after a bit of trial and error I finally got the HTC G1 all up and running as you can see software-wise we are on firmware version 1.0 meaning we're pretty much running the stock firmware that came with this phone when it first launched which is super cool the early versions of Android look so different compared to what it's like today and stuff like the web browser you'll find doesn't work all that well you can look things up on Google but things like certificates and security are very outdated which definitely causes some problems for some websites having a physical keyboard on your smartphone is certainly not something you see all that often these days and I do think I type faster on a screen anyway but there is absolutely something to feeling real tactile buttons on your smartphone that feel satisfying and engaging so while using the T-Mobile G1 might not be the most practical thing to do in 2024 there is obviously a bit of nostalgia and curiosity when taking a look at a device like this in this current day and I think that's what makes it's so cool needless to say Android would become immensely successful on a global scale and HTC played a huge part of it through the early 2010s releasing a wide array of smartphones including some of the Market's Greatest Hits humongous tin foil catamaran HTC it's anything you want it to be for example here's a device that I think a lot of people on the internet get nostalgic for the HTC1 M8 which was the company's Flagship Android phone for 2014 and I think this is when they truly peaked now what's cool is that I was actually able to pick this up off of eBay supposedly brand new in box for about $58 it does seem a little sus that there are no product pictures on the box itself apart from the HTC logo but at the very least we have some text specs on the back as well as a label that says that this is in fact the HTC1 M8 interior packaging is a little questionable but as long as the phone is in somewhat decent shape I'll take it famous last words that this phone's broken but oh look at that it's all wrapped up it even has some protective plastic covering the green okay okay let's get that peel ooh clean as well yeah man this phone looks pristine and I love the design on it as well I'd argue that it holds up fairly well considering that it is a 10-year-old device the unibody aluminum construction on the 1 M8 feels very premium in the hands and especially how it's rounded on the edges makes it feel very comfortable as well Plus for the time this was considered by some critics to be the iPhone for people that want Android which is kind of funny considering that the 1 M8 came out at roughly the same time as when Apple took Samsung to court for infringing on their smartphone patents but rather than fighting the monolithic fruit company HTC actually entered in a cross licensing agreement with Apple to incorporate UI elements from the iPhone such as slide to unlock Universal search and inertial scrolling into their build of Android without the fear of lawsuits looming over their heads the details of this agreement weren't made public but it's widely assumed that it only covered the scope of software which is really interesting when you consider that the 1 M8 looks pretty similar to its iPhone counterpart if I take off my glasses these guys look pretty damn similar regardless either way this is a gorgeous smartphone through and through and it even comes down to the software this guy is running HTC Sense which was their skinned version of Android I think at the time there might have been some criticism over this being fairly bloated but sense actually had a pretty clean aesthetic for the time that brought some serious competition to iOS while still offering the flexibility and functionality that people sought from Android hell I'd even argue that some aspects of this UI even look good for 2024 standards especially with this awesome looking screen color especially on the back glass but yeah yo I got to say that the image quality out of this screen is amazing the colors especially pop so well but I think the most impressive mive thing out of this device by far at least in terms of content consumption has to be the speakers the fact that you get two frontf firing stereo speakers is amazing this is something that's especially rare these days when you consider that phones don't have foreheads and chins anymore to house speakers in the scheme of shrinking bezels you really only get like one frontf firing speaker at best with the second one facing downwards so if you want proper stereo sound you still have to cup the bottom and watch content like this which is less than ideal in my opinion now funny enough while Scavenging through our company inventory for HTC phones to film I found this guy that I totally forgot existed this is the HTC1 M8 Google Play edition this version was aimed more at the Android purist out there keeping the same beautiful aluminum design and flat Flagship Hardware but this one runs stock Android it was pretty neat that Google sold this on their website directly alongside other Google Play edition devices from other brands as well as their Nexus lineup which was Google's first party brand that came before the pixel in fact Google had worked with HTC to manufacture the first Nexus device the Nexus 1 in 2010 which is probably one of the best performing Android phones of its time and showcased all the newest software updates right from Google themselves so when you take a step back HTC might have had one of the most decorated histories among Android vendors but you don't really hear much about them these days so what exactly happened and where are they now approaching the second half of the 2010s it was clear that HTC couldn't quite keep up with the competition Apple was absolutely dominating with the the iPhone and players such as Huawei xiaomi and of course Samsung were eating up all of the precious market share around the world it said that by 2016 HTC had lost 50% of its market value over the course of 2 years for as good as the HTC1 was as a product line it simply was not enough to keep the company from losing money now as sad as that sounds there was actually some bit of good that came out of this for one HTC Diversified their product lineup Beyond smartphones and looked toward VR the HTC Vive was announced in 2015 alongside a partnership with valve and it would go on to be one of HTC's core products even today however going back to smartphones the spirit of HTC's beautiful devices actually lives on today in the form of Google pixel devices yep you heard that right you see HTC played the long game in their relationship with Google from manufacturing that T-Mobile G1 and some Nexus devices all the way to being Google's Hardware partner for the original Google pixel it's clear that both companies were very comfortable cozying up together so much so that in a poetic twist of fate Google actually ended up acquiring hdc's entire design team as well as intellectual property for smartphones in 2017 for around $1.1 billion now that might not seem like a whole lot of money when you consider that smartphones have actually snowballed into a $500 billion industry in 2023 but in some ways this was actually kind of a Saving Grace for HTC 4,000 people found new prospects within Google and the pixel brand being nine Generations in has absolutely matured into being one of the best smartphone Brands around hc's influence on the market even today cannot be overstated now it's worth noting that HTC are sort of trying to come back and capitalize on people's Nostalgia for the brand with a new smartphone called the U24 Pro but honestly I think it's kind of a tough sell quite literally this phone is mid it sits right below Flagship pricing the specs are kind of whatever it doesn't capture that sense of wonder and excitement about smartphones that I felt in 2014 with the HTC1 M8 which I get is certainly a tall order even for competitive looking devices here in 2024 but all this to say that I think HTC is best kept as a legacy a reminder of how we got here and to appreciate just how mature smartphones have gotten damn that got pretty deep but let me know what kinds of Technology are you you nostalgic for in the comments below otherwise thanks for watching this video on Dany Channel