From DailyTech: HTC Corp. (TPE:2498) released its first -- and only second so far -- branded tablet in May 2011, the 7-inch HTC Flyer. At the time it was soon to become America's top smartphone seller. The tablet packed decent hardware, but the weak state of Google Inc.'s (GOOG) Android 2.3 "Gingerbread" and Android 3.2 "Honeycomb", when it came to tablet form factors, lessened the device's appeal
HTC tried to fire things up in Sept. 2011 with the 10-inch HTC Jetstream, the first LTE-enabled tablet on AT&T, Inc.'s (T) network in the U.S. In Oct. 2012, the pint-sized Flyer joined its unreleased brethren in the nether lands, when HTC bailed on it amid plunging financials. No longer the darling of the American market, HTC's slide would be long and painful.
The Taiwanese device-maker has been working desparately to turn things around. Occasionally it considered a return to tablet sales, but it remained hesitant lest another Flyer-like Flop hastened its descent. The sad irony was that its tablets perhapps came too soon to the Android scene and fled too early. While Gingerbread and Honeycomb struggled on tablets, Android 4.0 "Ice Cream Sandwich" received rave reviews and started the sales surge that eventually led Android tablets to pass Apple, Inc.'s (AAPL) iPad in sales.
But fate finally appears to be growing more kind, as it appears HTC is at last turning the corner. It has a line of appealing budget devices -- the Desire smartphone family. And its flagship device, the HTC One M8 has been a modest sales success.
And if NVIDIA Corp.'s (NVDA) recent filing with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) is accurate, then it could be preparing to take yet another step, forward, scoring a blockbuster tablet contract from Google Inc. (GOOG).
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