HTC Said to Plan Windows Tablets to Challenge Apple-Led Market
HTC Corp. (2498) plans to make tablets based on the Windows operating system, giving Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) another ally in its challenge to Apple Inc. (AAPL) and Google Inc. (GOOG) in the $63.2 billion market, people familiar with the matter said.
Context & Ripple Effects
Microsoft spent 2012 assembling a hardware coalition for its tablet push: reports through the year had Microsoft building its own Surface tablet, Acer and Toshiba lining up Windows 8 slates, and Samsung planning a Windows RT tablet for October. HTC would be the latest OEM recruited into that camp, per people familiar with the matter — a rumor, not a confirmed product plan.
For HTC specifically, the timing follows its confirmed November 2012 ten-year cross-license settlement with Apple that dismissed all pending patent suits between them, freeing the Taiwanese maker of litigation overhang as it weighs new product lines. It also echoes HTC's earlier tablet experimentation, including its 2010 work with Google on a Chrome OS tablet and its 2010 study of proprietary smartphone software.
First-order effects
- HTC would gain a second tablet operating system alongside Android, while Microsoft adds another named hardware ally in its challenge to Apple and Google in the $63.2 billion tablet market — though the plan remains unconfirmed by either company.
Second-order effects
- HTC's entry deepens an OEM bench — Samsung, Acer, Toshiba, now reportedly HTC — that gives Windows RT more shelf presence, but it also sharpens the channel conflict with Microsoft's own Surface, which puts Microsoft in direct competition with the partners it is recruiting.
- Google faces further erosion of Android exclusivity among its closest phone partners, as HTC — historically one of its most loyal device makers — hedges toward Windows.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, the tablet market consolidates into two ecosystem blocs — Apple's integrated model versus a Microsoft-led licensing coalition — with OEMs multi-homing across Android and Windows rather than committing to one platform.
The trend: Tablet hardware is reorganizing around ecosystem alliances, with Microsoft trading its traditional licensor role for direct competition against Apple using partner-built Windows devices.