HTC Focuses on Content With New Exec Appointment

From PC World: High Tech Computer (HTC) named its first chief content officer this week, showing how the Taiwanese smartphone maker aims to push more deeply into content, in addition to hardware, for a long-term competitive edge.

HTC picked Shashi Fernando as chief content officer to signal its commitment to developing content as a pivotal component in its devices, the company said Tuesday. In February HTC bought Saffron Digital, the mobile video firm Fernando founded in 2006, another sign of its content development ambitions.

Content will be a crucial part of HTC's future, the company said.

HTC isn't the first smartphone manufacturer to take an interest in the market for downloadable games, apps, and other content.

Apple set the trend with its app store for the iPhone. Since then, RIM has opened an app store for BlackBerry users, while the Android Market offers apps for smartphones from Google and the many other vendors of smartphones running the Android OS. Nokia, too, has its Ovi Store for phones running its soon-to-be-abandoned Symbian OS, while Samsung Electronics runs an app store for phones running its proprietary Bada software platform.

Developing the market for content "is going to be the key driver for the branding of smartphones," said Wai Ho Leong, regional economist with Barclays Capital in Singapore. "This is really going to be a deciding factor, the way brands will be differentiated."

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