Peter Chou: HTC's savior or obstacle to revival?

Now in his tenth year as CEO of HTC, Peter Chou is lauded as the architect of the Taiwanese firm's award-winning smartphones. But as the company's fortunes have dived, some insiders say he's now an obstacle to any revival. Rocked by internal feuding and executive exits, and positioned at the high-end of a smartphone market that is close to saturation, HTC has seen its market share slump to below 5 percent from around a quarter five years ago; its stock price is at 8-year lows, and it has warned it could make a first operating loss this quarter.

Reuters interviewed a dozen former and current HTC executives who said Chou's abrasive management style and weak strategic vision play their part in the company's decline, which has coincided with the success of Apple's iPhone and Samsung's Galaxy phones. Chou has said publicly he has no intention to stand down, and executives - none of whom wanted to be named because of the sensitive nature of the issue - said HTC has no clear internal successor. "Part of the weakness is there is no obvious successor, and that's not been good for morale," one said.

Chou declined to be interviewed for this article, but in response to Reuters queries, the company said, "HTC's board and broad employee base remain committed to Peter Chou's leadership. The (flagship) HTC One product family - which has been met with accolades by media and consumers alike - was a result of Peter's vision and leadership, and speaks for itself."

HTC CEO Peter Chou may be an obstacle in the company's recovery

Born in Myanmar but educated as an electrical engineer in Taiwan, Chou joined HTC from Digital Equipment in 1997. Colleagues describe him as a perfectionist with an obsessive eye for materials and hardware design. Staff would deliver trays of prototype phones for him to inspect and pore over, spinning them to check for balance and running his fingers across the bevelled edges and joints. Phones would pile up on his desk, sometimes spilling onto the floor. That attention to detail and Chou's willingness to make decisions on the fly helped build a culture within HTC of moving quickly to address market demands.

At an offsite meeting two years ago, for example, the HTC team realised it needed another device for its portfolio. Chou quickly drew some sketches on a whiteboard, recalled one of those present, and soon had the outlines of a device, its price point, and a launch date - just three months away. Most manufacturers would need up to 18 months for a similar project, yet the Sensation XL appeared on schedule, and to rave reviews. "Having the ability to just tear up a plan and say, OK, this is the new thing and we're going to get it done fast. That's Peter," said another former senior foreign executive.

This shoot-from-the-hip approach served HTC well when the market was growing fast. Shortening the time to market meant HTC could alter plans at the last minute to take advantage of new or cheaper parts. But, as the market has matured, making it harder for handset makers to differentiate their products, the approach has left HTC vulnerable. Locking in the supply of more advanced components and materials to make products stand out requires more foresight and planning than HTC currently allows, former executives say. "The weak point is they don't really have a long term strategy," said one. Rationalising his stance, the executive said, "It used to be a strength, and now is becoming a weak point as they don't have a clear direction going forward."

HTC's second-quarter net profit was well below forecasts even after resolving component shortages that hit its HTC One phone, and the company has said current quarter revenue could fall by as much as 30 percent from the previous quarter. HTC shares trade at around a tenth of their 2011 peak.

Just three years ago, HTC was shipping 25 million smartphones a year and Chou led a huge expansion, bringing in foreign executives from Sony Ericsson, Apple, Motorola and Microsoft as he sought to take on Apple by doubling HTC's shipments. HTC was named Device Manufacturer of the Year at the world Mobile Congress in February 2011 and its market value topped that of rivals Research In Motion, now BlackBerry, and Nokia. Chou ordered champagne to celebrate. But as Apple and Samsung reigned supreme, HTC's annual shipments never reached that 50 million level, and by the end of last year HTC had dropped to number 10 among global smartphone makers. The HTC One, and earlier so-called ‘hero' handsets from HTC, have won wide praise. The problem has been selling them.

Executives say HTC's failure to hit sales targets was at least partly down to Chou's management style. After hiring a slew of foreign executives, he fell short on promises to senior staff to foster a more open culture and cede sufficient authority. He openly berated managers and overrode their decisions, often with little discussion.

Such an atmosphere, executives said, damaged morale and left managers uncertain of their roles. Chou kept his sales, product, marketing and design executives separate and, in some cases, created parallel teams doing the same thing. He didn't hold meetings of executives of the different departments to iron out problems even as HTC's performance wilted. "There's a culture in HTC not to discuss numbers at senior management meetings," said one former executive. "Those discussions tend to become hard or ugly, but if you don't solve it, it becomes bigger."

Chou's difficulty in developing a durable global brand of handsets and building an ecosystem of apps and services around it raise questions about how HTC can recover under his leadership at a time when high-end smartphone sales growth is slowing. "With intensifying competition from other top-tier players and the entrance of lower-tier players, we think a long-term margin downtrend is inevitable," SinoPac wrote in a recent note. Many of the foreign hires have now quit, and HTC's old guard has re-established charge, running nearly all operations except design from Taipei. That, say those both inside and outside the company, is a mixed blessing.

While leadership tensions may have eased, some warn that concentrating global marketing in Taiwan will create a one-size-fits-all, local approach that won't help HTC grow globally. "What works in Taiwan is different from other markets," said one of the former executives. Chief Marketing Officer Benjamin Ho defended the move, saying in a recent interview with Reuters that it made sense to centralise key functions, but that HTC was "not forgetting that we know we're an international brand." Even his fiercest critics agree Chou remains the heart of the company and say it's hard to imagine HTC coming up with great devices without him.

As it seeks to turn around its fortunes, HTC has launched cheaper phones in China, and brought out a smaller, cheaper version of its flagship phone, the One Mini. It is trying to revive its US business by working more closely with operators and forming a new operations team.

HTC has also signed up "Iron Man" star Robert Downey Jr, whose own turnaround story - from jail and drug rehabilitation over a decade ago - is an "inspiration", says Ho. As part of HTC's around $1 billion annual marketing spend, the first advertisements featuring Downey appeared last week.

Reuters

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Facebook for Android SDK updated to be more in line with the iOS counterpart

Facebook has updated its SDK for Android to bring it more in line with the iOS version. The major update is bringing along with it some major improvements for developers and is already available via Facebook’s Android Dev Center right now.

Facebook confirmed to TechCrunch that the features that are now being made available to the Android SDK were already available to iOS developers. In a blog post announcing the changes, Chris Lang from Facebook wrote that the update is bringing along products promised for the SDK back in April. The SDK for Android now includes Share Dialog and support for the Object API as well as the ability to implement Open Graph on mobile easily. Lang assured that Facebook’s aim was to help developers build great apps on any device and platform. About 73 percent of the top 100 grossing Android apps integrate with Facebook and the release of the new SDK will probably see more apps integrating with Facebook.

Better sharing with the updated SDK

The Share Dialog is one of the most important updates to the Android SDK and will eliminate at least three extra steps required to log in to Facebook before being able to share via the feed dialog. With one line of code, developers will be able to enable users to share as well as tag friends in it. Additionally, the Dialog will include support for publishing Open Graph actions, which will make it easier for people to posts stories.

The SDK is also bringing along a much improved Facebook Login UI that not only looks better but also converts at a higher rate. The LoginButton now looks different and the default text reads “Log in with Facebook”. Developers will be able to use the redesigned UI without needing to rewrite any codes. Of course, they can still override the default text on the LoginButton via localisation. Facebook has also announced support for Object API, the tool that makes it easier to integrate Open Graph into Android apps. Developers will no longer need to host webpages with Open Graph tags and will be able to create Open Graph objects directly.

New LoginButton!

With the Android SDK, Facebook is launching in beta the option of publishing and measuring app events for applications. Developers will be able to get a lot more accurate understanding of how their app is performing with the trial insights and targeting feature. This is a huge leap from being only able to measure the number of installs that stemmed from advertising on mobiles. “With app events, you can now also measure the aggregate number of times a predefined action was taken within your app, such as 'add to cart' in a commerce app, 'level achieved' in a game, or other custom events that help you understand the engagement and ROI coming from your mobile ads on Facebook,” wrote Lang. “Over the next several months, we will be working on improving our optimization and insights and developing new features that will further leverage app events.”

Also added is an App User ID for custom audiences. Developers will be able to reach people who have installed or purchased their app by defining the ID and uploading this encrypted list onto Facebook’s ad tool as custom audience. This will be a great new addition for developers who have apps that run mobile app install ads.

You can download the updated Facebook for Android SDK here.

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NSA collected 56,000 emails by Americans a year

The National Security Agency may have unintentionally collected as many as 56,000 emails of Americans per year between 2008 and 2011 in a program that a secret U.S. court subsequently said may have violated U.S. law and the Constitution, according to documents released on Wednesday.

The once-classified documents were released by U.S. intelligence agencies as part of an unprecedented White House effort to smooth the uproar following revelations by former contractor Edward Snowden about the extent of secret government surveillance programs.

U.S. officials say the documents show that intelligence collection programs that inadvertently intrude on Americans' privacy are found and fixed.

The NSA headquarters!

But they also appear to raise new questions about operations by the eavesdropping National Security Agency and its oversight by the secret U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC).

"The court is troubled that the government's revelations regarding the NSA's acquisition of Internet transactions mark the third instance in less than three years in which the government has disclosed a substantial misrepresentation regarding the scope of a major collection program," Judge John Bates of the surveillance court wrote in one of the declassified documents.

More specifically, Bates said in an October 2011 ruling that the court had concluded that the process that resulted in improper collections of the tens of thousands of emails was "in some respects, deficient on statutory and constitutional grounds."

The newly declassified documents can be found at www.icontherecord.tumblr.com

'NOT AN EGREGIOUS OVERREACHING'

The emails in question represent only a small slice of the electronic communications scooped up around the world by the NSA. It targets about 250 million email communications for collection each year and, under a separate program, has captured and kept records of millions of phone calls by Americans.

According to the documents, only about 9 percent of the emails - or less than 25 million - are collected from "upstream" sources, which officials familiar with intelligence operations said are cable links belonging to telecommunications companies.

The rest are acquired by the NSA from Internet service providers at the point where they are sent or received. The roughly 56,000 annual emails in question were from "upstream" sources.

Intelligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, defended their practices.

"This is not an egregious overreaching by a greedy agency seeking to spy on Americans. This is a technological problem that resulted in an inadvertent collection of a relatively small number of U.S. person communications," a senior intelligence official told reporters.

In the newly declassified ruling of the FISA Court, the court in a footnote estimates that, based on data supplied by the NSA, between 2008 and 2011, the agency might have unintentionally collected as many as 56,000 emailed communications of Americans annually.

U.S. intelligence officials told reporters that the domestic emails were collected under a program designed to target the emails of foreign terrorism suspects.

The program does not collect emails because of flagged words such as "bomb." Instead it takes in those mentioning specific addresses, or going to or from particular addresses, one official said.

One way that emails of American citizens can get caught in the net is because the program captures the screenshot of the person's webmail account that shows a page of emails received or sent, rather than just the one targeted email, he said.

"For technological reasons NSA was not capable ... and still is not capable of breaking those down into their individual components," the official said.

'SELF-POLICING'

According to the officials and a court document which the administration released, the NSA decided to "purge" the material after discovering it was inadvertently collected.

"When you look at these documents taken as a whole, you'll get a sense for the really effective self-policing that goes on at NSA," an intelligence official said. "Any time you have a large technologically complex operation that involves thousands of people, there will mistakes, there will be errors."

The historically ultra-secretive NSA has recently taken rare steps to openly discuss classified surveillance programs after the Snowden disclosures put the Obama administration on the spot to try and explain that U.S. intelligence agencies were not deliberately spying on Americans and foreign allies.

A handful of lawmakers, most notably Senator Ron Wyden, a Democratic member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, had begun complaining months ago that the NSA was eavesdropping on Americans' communications in ways that were excessive and not transparent.

Wyden, in a statement, said the declassification of the court ruling was "long overdue" and made clear that the law as written was "insufficient to adequately protect the civil liberties and privacy rights of law-abiding Americans and should be reformed."

Intelligence officials and the declassified documents explained that one of the main reasons that the NSA inadvertently collected information on Americans without proper legal authorization was that the method used to collect emails from targeted addresses linked to foreign suspects sometimes automatically brought into the agency batches of unrelated, and purely domestic, emails. Those should not have been collected without a warrant.

Since discovering the inadvertent collection program, intelligence officials said, the NSA has tightened its procedures for spotting and getting rid of data on Americans that was collected without proper authority.

Reuters

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Golden Calls: Will China embrace a champagne iPhone?

If Apple hopes to woo more Chinese by adding a glitzy coating - some call it champagne, some gold - to its next iPhone, it may be in for a surprise.

While gold is hugely popular as a safe haven and a status symbol - China is set to overtake India as the world's biggest gold consumer this year - shoppers at an Apple store in Beijing weren't all convinced it should be coupled with that pinnacle of mobile gadgetry.

Ni Suyang, a 49-year old worker at a Beijing state-owned enterprise, said that colour mattered less to her than the glass surface and silver metallic finish.

Glitzy coating on the upcoming iPhone?

"A gold colour looks high-end but is a little tacky," she said.

Gold and mobile phones are not strangers. Britain's Gold & Co makes gold-plated iPhones, iPads and BlackBerrys which it also sells in India and China.

In Shenzhen many small local brands make gold-plated feature phones and smartphones. The less well-heeled can adorn their devices with jewel-studded and gold phone covers.

Apple's decision to add a champagne or gold covered iPhone to its range - confirmed by supply chain sources in Taiwan - would be a departure from its black and white norm.

Apple could be not reached for comment.

Commercially it makes sense, said Jerry Zou, Senior VP and Partner at FleishmanHillard, a public relations firm in Beijing. New colours would add "novelty and variety, both of which are key to winning over fickle Chinese consumers".

A champagne colour "would convey an image suggesting high-end luxury but a bit more restrained and subtle".

ALL THAT GLITTERS...

But browsers at Apple's Xidan store weren't so sure - even on which gender would like it.

"Gold is for guys, I think," said 22-year old Meng Xiang, a retail buyer working in Guangzhou, who said she preferred pink and white. "I would consider buying a gold iPhone for my boyfriend."

Cui Baocheng, a 48-year-old bank manager, disagreed. "I prefer black to gold," he said. "Men usually like black. Champagne might be very ugly."

Indeed, there's a danger that by trying to broaden its appeal Apple may end up undermining what makes the iPhone so desirable in the first place.

Younger Chinese see gold as old-fashioned and tacky, and are increasingly opting for platinum - dubbed "white gold" in Chinese - for weddings and gifts.

"An iPhone with more colours means that Apple is adapting to consumers' tastes, especially a gold colour that Chinese people like," said Xu Fang, a 28-year old real estate agent. "However, I think this might undermine the value and uniqueness of the brand."

Apple's sales in Greater China, its second biggest market, slumped 43 percent in April-June from the previous quarter. Its market share has almost halved since last year to below 5 percent, according to industry researcher Canalys.

The bigger problem, says Shanghai-based product designer Brandon Edwards, is that while gold added "cultural relevance on top of Apple's inherent brand value" and may attract premium users from other brands, "Apple's main issue in China and emerging markets is centred around acquiring new customers, and this doesn't hit those people at all".

Indeed, consumers in India, where Apple's market share is just over 2 percent, were just as sceptical. Mumbai phone retailer Manish Khatri said he did occasionally get customers asking for gold-coloured phones, but the biggest deterrent to buying an iPhone for most of them was cost.

For others, gold is something to buy, not to slap on a mobile device.

Said Vikas Jindal, a 35-year old Delhi businessman and a regular buyer of gold: "I'll look stupid if I carry a gold-coloured phone. A phone should be simple and sober."

Reuters

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New leak reveals seven upcoming Nokia Windows Phone devices

News about upcoming Nokia smartphones has been popping up quite a bit in the last few days. After hints of a new phablet codenamed Bandit, yet another leak now suggests that this is just the tip of the iceberg. The Finnish mobile manufacturer may be working on six other devices, revealed through a list of codenames. If true, it seems like Nokia definitely has some big plans for the Windows Phone platform.

The leak, courtesy EvLeaks, lists the Nokia products codenames as Bandit, Lanai, Orion, Pegasus, Rivendell, Shorty, Siruis (which might be a typo for the word Sirius). Bandit, as we already know, refers to the upcoming Nokia phablet. What is interesting is that the product bearing the codename Rivendell was leaked by the same source a few months back. It is still not certain if this codename refers to an upcoming Windows RT tablet that Nokia has been reportedly working on and which was also said to have the same codename.

Nokia product codenames: Bandit, Lanai, Orion, Pegasus, Rivendell, Shorty, Siruis

— @evleaks (@evleaks) August 21, 2013

While Bandit and Rivendell do have a precedent, five other codenames have not yet surfaced in any other leaks. Looking at Nokia’s consistent focus on the Windows Phone platform, it seems safe to assume that all of them will be running that OS. It will be interesting to see what Nokia has in mind, because the number is considerable, if at all, these seven are released this year. IFA in Berlin next month seems to be the most likely place where we will see Nokia's next announcement.

An intriguing point to be noted here is the fact that three of the codenames seem inspired by the night sky. Orion and Pegasus are both constellations, while Sirius is the brightest star in the sky. Whether this hints at the devices' features remains to be seen.

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China's Oppo set to introduce camera-centric N1 smartphone in September

There are quite a few Chinese smartphone manufacturers that remain relatively unknown in other parts of the world. But their smartphones are definitely worth finding out about. One such player, Oppo, has finally unveiled its camera-centric smartphone, which was hinted at earlier. The Chinese smartphone will compete with the likes of the Nokia Lumia 1020 or the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom.

The USP of the smartphone, called Oppo N1, is the new “Owl” chip that it sports, according to Android Authority. The imaging chip has reportedly been engineered for superior low-light performance. Apart from that, the smartphone will also come with the new N-Lens and Xenon flash. 

The latest news suggests that the Oppo N1 is all set to get a release date soon, perhaps as soon as the end of September. The company recently confirmed the existence of the smartphone on its Weibo (China’s equivalent of Twitter) account. There is still not much else known about the smartphone, though. Earlier information indicated that the smartphone will come with a 13 megapixel camera, which is the best in its class in terms of low-light shooting capabilities. What else the smartphone will come packing, or even how it will look for sure, has still not been revealed.

The Oppo N1 should come with specifications comparable to the company's Find 5

The Oppo N1 could come with a relatively cheaper price tag in comparison to other flagship smartphones sold in the US. That being said, the N1 will still come with a reported $480 (Rs 30,880 approx) price tag, which is still a bit hefty.

Oppo’s earlier flagship, the Find 5, came with impressive specifications. Thus, it can be assumed that the N1 will most likely come with similar specifications, i.e., a 1080p display as well as a good image sensor. While other details are scanty, this latest smartphone offering brings to light the increasing demand being placed for smartphones with higher imaging quality.

There have been reports of Sony looking at some heavyweight lenses for its upcoming Honami/i1 series. And other companies are not far behind. HTC has been rolling out its Ultrapixel bearing smartphones for a while now, while Motorola stands strong with its Clearpixel technology. From all the evidence presented, there is definitely a market for camera-centric smartphones. What remains to be seen is how Oppo’s latest offering will stand up against the likes of Sony, Samsung, HTC and Motorola.

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Google finally announces beta support for Handwrite in Hindi

Say hello to Handwrite in Hindi! Google has finally announced that it is offering beta support for handwriting in Hindi and the ability to switch to a native Hindi experience on Android for millions of its users in India. 

Hindi goodness is here!

To put it simply, with this newfound ability, users can make Google searches by just writing letters with their finger or stylus anywhere on their device’s screen. To begin, go to www.google.co.in on your mobile browser, tap on “Settings” at the bottom of the screen, go to Search Settings and enable “Handwrite.” Users can then proceed to changing the language in Google products to Hindi. Alternatively, they can add “Hindi” as the Language of Search Results. Once they’ve saved the setting, users may have to refresh the homepage to see the feature. Those looking to enable handwrite in Hindi on their tablets must note that the Search settings can be found behind the gear icon. Once the feature is active, users will have to tap the Handwrite icon visible at the bottom right corner of their screen to activate it. Once done, users can write anywhere on the screen. 

It also possible now for users to translate Hindi with Google Translate app for Mobile. All they have to do is download the Google Translate app from the Play store and change the language from the dropdown settings, and then just enter the text they want to translate. Here, users can enter Hindi text using handwriting too. 

Google finally announces beta support for Handwrite in Hindi

Additionally, if users choose to, they can handwrite Hindi script into any site on the web using the Google Input Tools Chrome Extension – available on the Chrome Webstore. 

If you’re an Android 4.3 Jelly Bean user, you can switch to using your Android completely in Hindi. Those interested can go to Settings and select Language and Input. Tap on Language to view a list of the languages, select Hindi, and the interface will switch to this new language. 

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