HTC: Merger with ASUS not in the cards

By Harish Jonnalagadda
last updated

Last week, Reuters reported that ASUS was interested in buying HTC, with Chairman Jonney Shih said to have made a comment signifying the same during a shareholder meeting. Although ASUS mentioned that a formal bid was yet to be made, HTC has also come out with a statement denying the claims:

We strongly deny the news. We didn't contact Asusteck and will not consider the acquisition. As an international brand, HTC will continue to design world-class innovative smart devices through its pursuit of brilliance brand promise.

While HTC isn't considering an acquisition, it is going through a bleak quarter that is projected to end in a net loss.

Source: HTC (opens in new tab)

Harish Jonnalagadda
Harish Jonnalagadda
Senior Editor - Asia

Harish Jonnalagadda is a Senior Editor overseeing Asia at Android Central. He leads the site's coverage of Chinese phone brands, contributing to reviews, features, and buying guides. He also writes about storage servers, audio products, and the semiconductor industry. Contact him on Twitter at @chunkynerd.

37 Comments
  • True, they do build world class devices.. But the m9 was really a misstep. Samsung can afford to release average phones because they'll still sell plenty of them.
    HTC doesn't have that luxury. Every year needs to be great, and I just hope they do a great comeback next year. IMO HTC is still unique in their abilities to make great looking hardware and extremely responsive software. Posted via the Android Central App
  • I think the M10 will be on point, and a worthy successor to the M8 that the M9 wasn't. As far as their software responsiveness, they still use a kitkat/zoom app opening transition animation and speed it up to the point where there's barely even any animation at all. That's why it feels so fast. Not too hard to accomplish
  • How did you get the source code for the Sense UI to know how they are able to achieve the performance noted when interacting with the applications? What fps value(s) are they using that makes it (transitions) appear faster? I've always wondered what the secret sauce was that they were using with Sense, now I think you've solved the mystery. Posted via the Android Central App
  • You're over complicating things. It's quite simple. Clearly the transition animations are highly sped up by default, and the app opening animation itself barely even exists. As far as fps, clearly it's low since that animation is so fast
  • Dude just stop. You are so far off base it's ridiculous. To act as if you know what you're talking about is even funnier. For example the M8 had one of the most responsive display panel when registering user input. That alone can have an affect on how much latency there is between actions and their preceding user input. Also, do tell if Sense is aggressively reducing the number of frames rendered during animations or shortening the animation time frame, is it doing so dynamically or is this setting static? Posted via the Android Central App
  • Lmao!!! Thats great that the M8 had one of the most responsive displays when registering user input, but there are too many ways to make any high end android device feel just as responsive. I own an M7 and a note 4 so I know from experience how easy it is to make other Android devices feel even faster and just as responsive to the point where the user can't tell the difference. It's too easy. And change your freakin avatar! Nobody wants to look at that garbage on here
  • I'm sorry but ure way off.. U seem to think animations is the solution for software responsiveness which is definitely not the case. That's an incredibly over simplified assumption that all android skins are likewise, and only animations make the difference in software responsiveness. Posted via the Android Central App
  • Animations don't do the trick alone.. I have a galaxy ö s6 now but sense 6 was by far the most responsive ui. Even more important, I barely ever experienced any lag even after more than a year of use. I can't really say that even with my s6 now(even though it still is quite responsive) Posted via the Android Central App
  • Decrease the transition animations to 2×/2.5x in dev settings and see how responsive an M8/M9 feels compared to the S6 in its default state. Also, use something like apex launcher's icecream sandwich app opening animation on a non htc device and see and see if it feels faster than Sense in its default state. Responsiveness feels atleast as fast becasue the animation is so minimal, just like htc's.
  • Reduce those same values in sense on the M8 and M9 and watch the magic. Ooopss that would put the animation time frame in the negative since the value is already so low according to you. Posted via the Android Central App
  • Frame rates drop when transition animations are increased in speed. All you need to do is look at it in action. You're just a troll looking for an argument. Why else would a dude use a pic of Steve Jobs inside of an apple logo on android central? Lmao. Feel free to spew some more irrelevant bullshit while you're at it
  • The one distinction is that trolls try to argue using irrational logic or subpar intelligence. No, I don't agree that frame rates drop as animation speeds increase. It all depends on what the CPU and/or GPU can handle and how the buffer is being utilized. Posted via the Android Central App
  • I'm not here to argue with you dude. Yes, sense's touch responsiveness is very snappy. The only point I'm making is that there are a number of easy tweeks to make any half decent android device feel just as snappy and responsive without disabling animations, and you know that. For instance, I mentioned the ICS animation that apex launcher offers. If this were the default transition animation on say the S6, everyone would be raving about how unbelievably fast the phone is (which is an animation thats very similar to sense). The S6 is already snappy, and faster than any other phone on the market with even it's stock ROM when not factoring it's poor RAM management. but it's also has a different, slower app opening/closing animation to that of sense by default.
  • Yes I agree with that point. My only argument is that HTC's optimizations to the Sense UI goes far beyond tweaking parameters for managing transition sequences and animations. Posted via the Android Central App
  • Yeah, I'm not sure how they do it either. I wonder if it's the same concept as Nova Launcher. You can speed Nova up to where it's instantaneous with the transitions. Posted via the Android Central App
  • You know you can change the animation speed in developer options right? Posted via the Android Central App
  • SMH!
  • It's not just the animations. You can adjust those in the developer settings. HTC is very good at optimizing software, and things are responsive even if you discount the animations. This is why apps run well, the phone does not bog down over time, and why they are better at battery management.
  • Right on the money Posted via the Android Central App
  • I have my faith in HTC. Can't wait to see what the bring to to table next year...use my 100$ uhoh credit towards it =) Posted via the Android Central App
  • "Allegations?" Is that really what you want to say? It would suggest that a merger of ASUS and HTC would somehow entail wrongdoing or illegality. There is nothing alleged here -- they're rumors. ... Joe K. Posted via the Android Central App
  • Rumor may have been better. --- This message brought to you via the sarcasm keyboard available for download at the Google Play Store.
    LG-G2 on Lollipop.
  • Asus makes very reliable computers. Posted via the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 running Lollipop 5.0.1 on the T-Mobile Network.
  • Sense on a zenfone is an exciting proposition. Posted via the Android Central App
  • Too bad for HTC. Their phones haven't changed for the better in 3 years now.
  • Pity. Because ASUS has been making a lot more good moves than HTC.
    I would welcome a merge. It doesn't happen...well...too bad. Moving on... Posted via the Android Central App
  • That's a bummer for HTC. It just goes to show if you don't change the design of your phone often then it becomes stale. I still like their design. The M9 was definitely a backward step. I just get the feeling that HTC's heart weren't in it as far as the M9's camara is concerned.
  • Sorry HTC, but "world class" does not mean having a SoC that must be throttled to prevent overheating and a camera that is arguably worse than the previous model. Better luck next year...if you are still around.
  • HTC lost me years ago.. But all they really need is advertising. All these companies forget the basics of marketing. Samsung and Apple get it.. The M7,8,9 are fine. The problem is nobody knows they exist. The need a massive advertising campaign for the M10. Stop worrying about other markets too. United States is the only market that matters. 2nd is China. Get with the program HTC, advertise advertise advertise Nexus 5 (AT&T)
  • Because your Nexus 5 had a ton of advertisement?
  • "United States is the only market that matters." If that was ever the case, it is becoming less and less so.
  • Just because their denying it now, doesn't mean they will deny it in a few months. I take that with a grain of salt. Posted via the Android Central App
  • They're struggling, so they can't survive long on their own.
  • Camera modules in HTC devices would probably remain a huge compromise when compared to other flagships solutions. Posted via the Android Central App
  • This is disappointing. Seriously, an Asus-HTC merger would be very exciting to me. Asus-HTC would have a chance to make great Android and Windows phones/tablets/PCs. I feel like Asus really could adopt Sense and HTC's designs for their phones yet pump out lost cost hardware that could really gain marketshare from Samsung and the Chinese beasts like Xiaomi/Lenovo-Motorola/Meizu/Oppo-OnePlus/Huawei, etc. Asus has had great ideas like the Transformer and Padfone - they just need to improve the design of these devices.
  • Don't know what this merger would bring to the table, other than a marketing department that did more than make people wonder what you were smoking.
    My experience with Asus products has not been pleasant, with random performance issues and mushy keyboards that feel like you are typing on a mattress. Posted via the Android Central App
  • Hope it doesn't happen. I'd like to see them recover. They make a great product. Wonder why the head of HTC US isn't placed in charge.