Five years ago, no, three years ago, if you weren’t an avid mobile phone enthusiast you probably haven’t even heard of the brand HTC, but fast forwarding to today, those who are in the market for a new smartphone must have come across this brand for its unique Android and Windows Phone 7 solutions. How did such a company go from almost non-existent in the market to global smartphone hardware leader within half a decade? The answer lies in the CEO and founder of the company, Peter Chou.
Peter Chou founded HTC in 1997 along with Cher Wang in Taiwan and positioned themselves as a sole hardware manufacturer. Although in the early days the company’s success wasn’t astronomical, the company continued to produce unique, high quality Windows Mobile smartphones ages before iOS and Android came into existence. What makes the company phenomenal is Peter’s aggressiveness and willingness to take risks for the good of the company. HTC was the first company to produce smartphones for Google’s Android OS and was responsible for producing the first Google phone despite the uncertainty of the OS’s success. Furthermore, amidst all the criticism and backlash received in Nokia’s announcement of using Windows Phone 7 OS around the world, Peter Chou wittingly looks at the bright side of this partnership and compliments how this will bring a better future for Nokia, while strengthening the WP7 ecosystem, thus making HTC’s own WP7 phones easier to market as well. Kudos to Peter Chou for complimenting a competitor, it’s not something we see in any industry nowadays, especially in the lucrative mobile phone industry. Just like HTC’s motto, Peter Chou is “Quietly Brilliant”.