Taiwan HTC: iPhone quiet challenger

HTC supplies U.S. carriers Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile but says a year ago only one in 10 Americans knew its name. With the help of marketing by cellular carriers and HTC own television ads during the baseball World Series, HTC says that number is up to 40 percent.

"We want to be one of the leaders," said John Wang, the 13-year-old company chief marketing officer.

In trying to establish a global brand, HTC is following in the footsteps of another Taiwanese company, Acer Inc., which is battling Dell Inc. for the title of second-largest personal computer maker. Other rising Taiwanese technology names include software producer Trend Micro and Asustek Computer, a maker of PCs and cell phones.

HTC path to its own brand has been complicated by U.S. carriers preference for many years to market its phones under their own brands.

That started to change in 2007, and the HTC brand started showing up on phones, as carriers figured that the company had some cachet among early adopters that they could capitalize on. HTC phones on the U.S. market include the Droid Incredible, sold by Verizon Wireless, the HD2, sold by T-Mobile USA, and the Hero, sold by Sprint Nextel Corp.

Even now, HTC is careful to avoid straining ties with carriers by promoting its own identity too aggressively. Such ties are crucial in the United States, Japan and other markets where carriers usually pick which phones to offer. In Europe and elsewhere, customers pick their own phones and buy service separately.

"I don't think it should ever become a destination phone, because that is very arrogant," Wang said.

The company's slogan, "Quietly Brilliant," expresses both modesty and pride

[source:WSJ]