Struggling smartphone developer HTC didn’t quite reach iPhone status this year with the release of its U Ultra flagship smartphone. Reviewers knocked it on price, battery life and even breakability. Few HTC devices in the high price range have gotten attention over the past three years, usually due to lack of new features and dearth of sales outlets compared to other brands.
Now the Taiwanese developer is about to announce a smartphone that you can squeeze from the sides to enable some of its functions, tech media say. HTC won’t comment, but it will hold an event May 16 in suburban Taipei headlined “Squeeze for the Brilliant U.” Let’s take that as a clue.
Done right, a squeezable phone could bring HTC back into a welcome spotlight and set a trend to be followed by other smartphone brands.
Japanese mobile operator NTT Docomo’s Grip UI released about five years ago came with the same feature: you gently squeeze the phone like a sponge or a lemon and apps come alive on the screen. But that device got squeezed out by the crush of other smartphones in the market then. Samsung S8 phones come with touch-activated bars on the sides, but you can't pump them like bicycle brakes as the HTC device is supposed to work.
A squeezable HTC phone backed by solid underlying technology would give the vendor a strong grip in an otherwise uneventful market, says Neil Mawston, executive director for wireless devices with market research firm Strategy Analytics in the United Kingdom. Technology is usually HTC’s strong point. Anything short reliable would cast the squeezable phone as a “gimmick” that might hurt the HTC brand, he says. “If you can ‘squeeze and go’ and it helps to make the smartphone more user-friendly, HTC could have an unexpected hit on its hands,” Mawston says. “Operators and smartphone retailers are crying out for something different in a sea of bland rectangles.”
The Taiwanese developer needs a boost. HTC was an Android smartphone frontrunner in 2010. A year later it reached its global market share peak of 10.7%. Then things slowly fell apart under pressure from me-too Android smartphone rivals, many with stronger marketing and tighter relations with suppliers. This year it will take a 0.6% world market share with 8 million smartphones shipped, compared to 326 million shipped by the expectd leader Samsung, Taipei-based market research firm TrendForce forecasts.
A well-made high-end, squeezable Android phone might even set a trend extending past HTC. As screen sizes grow, phones get harder to use with just one-hand. A phone with squeezable sensors on the sides to activate certain features would make the big guys easier to manipulate, says Bryan Ma, devices research vice president tech market research firm IDC in Singapore. “What’s fascinating about this edge-sensing function is the potential for it to change how we interact with smartphones,” Ma says. The potential again depends on how HTC put the whole device together, he argues. "The user experience has to be easy, dependable, and intuitive,” Ma says. “It’s also unclear exactly what features HTC will enable through this interface, including whether third-party apps are able to take advantage of it."
But like any trendsetter in the making, HTC could face just a frustrating lack of familiarity among smartphone users. People may find their hands can’t get a precise grip on what they want to activate, says Eric Chiou, senior research director with market research firm WitsView in Taipei. He suggested that any squeezable phone tack on some other features just in case. “A squeezable phone might be a novelty for one or two companies, but it’s not going to get a widespread pickup,” Chiou forecasts.
