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Topic: Mobility

Rumor of another HTC tablet appears, will it get announced at IFA?

Summary: HTC made a solid tablet with the Flyer, but it and the Jetstream haven't done very well in the market. Photos appeared yesterday showing a possible HTC tablet.

Matthew Miller

By for The Mobile Gadgeteer |

Back at MWC in February 2011 HTC announced the HTC Flyer tablet and shortly after I bought one. I still use it quite a bit, but am not convinced that HTC should be in the Android tablet market. We now see rumors of a new tablet with a rather unique wide bezel.

I don't think the HTC Flyer did that well and then the HTC Jetstream was a complete failure. HTC makes high end products and with Android tablets like the Nexus 7 coming in at $200 I don't think HTC can really compete unless it seriously cuts costs. As has been said often here on ZDNet, there really is not much of a large tablet market, there is just an iPad market. At a time when HTC needs to be focused, it seems that this is a bit of distraction if it is true. They may have some special feature and if the pen input is as good as it is on the HTC Flyer then maybe they can try to grab the stylus crowd that doesn't seem to be too happy with the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1.

IFA is taking place in Berlin this week so it is possible that HTC will announce this tablet in the next day or two. Do you think HTC can compete in the Android tablet space?

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Topics: Mobility, Android, HTC

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7 comments
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  • Not high end...

    htc have a lot of products in the mid-range segment as well, with the Desire C, One V, One S, Explorer, Rhyme, Incredible S, Desire S, Salsa, ChaCha and Wildfire S...
    wright_is
    Reply Vote

  • The Flyer is fantastic

    The Flyer is a fantastic device, but yeah, much too expensive. I've owned one for about a year and use it every day. But it was a 7" device that initially sold for $500 when you could buy a 9.7" iPad for $500. To go for the Flyer you had to really, really want a 7" device and really, really want a pen digitizer... enough to overlook the fact that it wasn't even initially running a tablet optimized OS (the Flyer ran Android 2.3 initially, and only months later saw an update to Honeycomb).

    But now the landscape is even more changed. The Google Nexus 7 is a Tegra 3 sporting 7" device running Jellybean that sells for $250 in 16Gb guise, and the ASUS Transformer TF300 likewise boasts a Tegra 3, runs Jellybean and sells for as little as $380.00 for a 10.1" tablet. So HTC isn't just competing against Apple, they're competing against some very powerful, very reasonably priced Android alternatives, too.

    How HTC releases a tablet that manages to sell and turn a profit in this environment is a good question.

    Let me say also, that many HTC Flyer owners are rather miffed at HTC for not releasing an Ice Cream Sandwich update for the Flyer. So they've probably lost some goodwill and repeat customer business there, too.
    dsf3g
    Reply 1 Vote

    • I agree entirely about the launch price of the Flyer.

      When I saw what HTC were asking for one my eyes watered. I not afraid to part with some serious money but both HTC *and* Samsung made a serious error with what they thought they could get for their respective 7-inchers when they first came out.
      FrederickLeeson
      Reply Vote

  • The next big 7"

    will be offering motion and voice control, run W8 RT and be an all in one similar to what Samsung has just shown. Whoever comes out with it will corner the market and Samsung has all the pieces and the motivation to come out with something compelling and priced to kill the A mini.
    primartcloud
    Reply Vote

    • The next big 7"

      The next big 7" device will almost certainly come from Apple, and it's just silly to think otherwise (unless you stilll doubt that Apple will release a device that size). And the idea that Microsoft is going to release a Win 8 product that will bury iOS is just patently absord nonsense and one of the reasons why reading comments of Microsoft fanboys on these forums is a combination of depressing and exasperating.

      Windows RT may well eventually pose a serious threat to iOS. Heck, it may well overtake iOS in popularity one day. But if you think it's goig to be anything less than a long, hard, bruising long haul battle for marketshare, you're just living in a fantasy world.
      dsf3g
      Reply Vote

  • I'm not that sold on their phones either

    I've owned three HTC phones and if their tablets are as bad as their phones, why even market the dang thing?
    camcost@...
    Reply Vote

    • Why

      Why do you keep buying HTC phones if you don't like them? The first time I slammed my finger in a car door I realized that it was something I didn't particularly enjoy, and have strived to avoid it since. I certainly haven't paid anyone money so that I could slam my finger in the car door again and agin.
      dsf3g
      Reply 2 Votes
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