HTC profit dives 26% – Too Much Sense

HTC’s streak of record-breaking profits has been broken by a 26% drop in the fourth quarter of 2011. This is the first time in two years that HTC has recorded a year-over-year drop in profits and it is lackluster smartphone sales taking the heat.

HTC profit dives 26% in Q4 on stalled smartphone sales.

It was not difficult to see this coming and I actually expected it sooner but recent smartphone releases from HTC have been anything but interesting.  I keep seeing what is essentially the same phone, with slight changes cosmetically or one or two updated bits of hardware, but with little new to offer.

Take a look at the last few phones from HTC:

• Droid Incredible 2
• Inspire 4G
• Thunderbolt
• Sensation 4G
• Evo 3D

Not a single bad phone. Sure, the Thunderbolt’s battery life may give you pause. The Incredible is not really incredible at all. The Inspire 4G gives inspiration to continue looking but keep it on your list. The Sensation just isn’t aesthetically pleasing but is a very decent performer (just like all of the other phones here) and the Evo 3D is a Sensation in a different body and a 3D screen, and an extra camera, and bigger battery.

I’m bored. I’m bored of meaningless design changes. I’m tired of the exact same interface on every single HTC phone I use. I’m tired of getting interested in a phone, buying it, only to get online and see that a better version of the same phone with some new feature I would have liked is being released in three weeks from the same manufacturer.  I’m tired of battery life getting measurably worse with every new HTC smartphone with few justifiable reasons for the increased power drain. Why can my smartphone not last until lunch? I’m also tired of build quality that leads to me wondering why my pocket squeaks so much when I walk, only to realize that it is my Sensation, and the only solution being a yellow sticky note under the battery cover. Classy. I’m tired of making excuses for devices that simply aren’t as good as they should be.

HTC has sufficiently bored and disappointed me with their products such that I am using a Samsung smartphone now. It is better than the HTC phones I have used in the past year. It looks nicer, the plastic build quality is better than what I have experienced with HTC (even with their use of metals), the interface on the Galaxy S II is more useful and less intrusive than HTC Sense, and of course on the Galaxy Nexus the nearly pure Android interface is as good as I have seen. Even the comparatively low resolution AMOLED screen on the Galaxy S II is a thing of beauty in comparison to what I see on some of HTC’s phones.

HTC needs to give me a reason to want their phones again.  Build the best of something, please, and try to limit the depth of your Sense interface. It is not as good as you seem to believe. I know your people have worked hard on it but too much of a good thing is not a good thing.

 

RIM Services

Yes, I’m writing about RIM again. I truly respect what this company has contributed to mobile devices and how they have, nearly single-handedly, made mobile email and messaging ubiquitous amongst business professionals. Yet, somehow they appear to be a failing company.  I have lost interest in their phones.  I have found much better mobile devices. I have found services that replace (mostly) those I relied on with my former BlackBerry and those services have been more reliable than those provided by RIM as of late.

But, I have been missing something. 

RIM Needs Microsoft

RIM announced on its earning call this week that their new BlackBerry 10 operating system, based on the QNX OS that powers the BlackBerry Playbook, will not be appearing on smartphones until the latter part of 2012.

This is very bad news for RIM. 

Jesse Jackson Jr. Was Willing to Trade Former Illinois Governor Blagojevich for Senate Seat

According a report released by the Office of Congressional Ethics, “Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., (D-Ill.) showed a willingness to offer campaign contributions in exchange for Blagojevich appointing him to the Senate seat formerly held by President Obama. 

According to Politico:

“There is probable cause to believe that Rep. Jackson either (1) directed a third-party, most likely Mr. Raghuveer Nayak, to offer to raise money for Gov. Blagojevich in exchange for appointing Rep. Jackson to the Senate seat, or (2) had knowledge that Nayak would likely make such an offer once Rep. Jackson authorized him to advocate on his behalf with Gov. Blagojevich,” OCE stated in its July 2009 report to the Ethics Committee.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1211/69620.html#ixzz1fPjIZU00

Jackson Jr. denies the claims, saying that he  “did nothing illegal, unethical or inappropriate” in his attempt to gain appointment to the vacated Senate seat.  

Another dirty Illinois politician outed.  I doubt it will make much of a difference but at least someone is trying. 

Rick Perry’s Debate Blunder: A “W” Moment

Is this just a blunder that makes him seem more “human” or is it indicative of a politician who is in over his head?

Doesn’t it remind you of someone?

Should Presidential Primary Voting Be Held on a National Scale?

Instead of wondering why Iowa and New Hampshire are of such initial importance to candidates running for President, even though they are quite small in regard to population, maybe we should consider a national primary.  Maybe that primary should be held on the same say, at the same time, nationwide in order to avoid any one state having undue influence on the process.  Instead of various state legislatures attempting to move voting earlier every year to increase the level of importance their state appears to have in the process the primary schedule would not need to be drawn out unreasonably. In addition, candidates for national office, the only office in the United States for which there actually is a national vote, would be given a strong reason to campaign across the entire country rather than extreme rural areas that are not impacted by the same forces as New York and Chicago. 

Does anyone else feel that Iowa has to much influence in choosing the candidates that will represent you when they are elected?  If this does bother you, would it be as troubling were this same priority given to New York, Texas, California, or Florida as examples?

Politicians and Sex Scandals: Why They Keep Doing It

It keeps happening. Every few months another politician gets caught having inappropriate relations of some sort. Newt Gingrich, Bill Clinton, Elliot Spitzer, Larry Craig, and now Anthony Weiner. It is as if they believe they can have both a high profile political career while also retaining a high level of privacy.

Gingrich committed adultery and left his former wife for his current wife. Clinton had sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky while President of the United States then lied about it to his wife, officials part of the possibly illegal investigation that was seeking information about an unrelated legal matter, and to the public. Spitzer, a very highly regarded federal prosecutor who had moved on to other political endeavors was caught with a high-end prostitute. Larry Craig was busted soliciting what he thought to be a gay male prostitute. Anthony Weiner sent a text as well as tweet of his front end to a young woman he was flirting with. He then decided to lie about it publicly for over a week, then subsequently recanted, stating that he did actually send the messages rather than someone having hacked his account.

What I am am wondering is why politicians, high profile members of government, seem to believe no one will find out about these types of relationships. They must be aware of the American public’s unhealthy fascination with sexually deviant behavior. They must have seen the instances of indiscretion I have mentioned here.

So why do they keep doing it?