Specific hardware:
86-697: HTC Hero (marketed as T-Mobile G2 Touch by T-Mobile in the UK, Austria, Germany, Croatia, the Netherlands, Slovakia, and Hungary; and as Era G2 Touch in Poland) is the third phone manufactured by HTC running the Android platform, announced on June 24, 2009 in London. It is the second flagship Android phone, and the fourth Android phone after HTC Dream , HTC Magic , and the original Samsung Galaxy . Notably, it
172-483: A Super Smash Bros. Melee tournament, HTC Throwdown, which was held on 19 September 2015, in San Francisco . At the end of 2015, the company also sponsored the creation of that year's SSBMRank, the annual rankings of the best Melee players in the world. Sprint Nextel Sprint Corporation was an American telecommunications company . Before being acquired by T-Mobile US on April 1, 2020, it
258-531: A Windows Phone -powered variant of the One (M8), their first using the operating system since 2012. HTC ended its long relationship with Microsoft afterwards due to Nokia 's dominance in Windows Phone devices, and started focusing solely on Android. On 1 March 2015, HTC unveiled Vive , a virtual reality head-mounted display in collaboration with Valve . In June and October 2015, HTC reported net losses;
344-479: A proximity sensor . The Eris was succeeded by HTC's Droid Incredible in 2010. HTC Hero was the first phone to feature HTC's own "Sense" software, which includes a customized user interface. There had been initial issues regarding lag on the device, however a firmware upgrade resolved the problem to some extent. HTC announced their intent to release an update for the Hero in the first half of 2010 that would upgrade
430-555: A $ 129 billion merger agreement between the two companies. The deal would have been the largest corporate merger in history at the time. However, due to pressure from the United States Department of Justice and the European Union on concerns of it creating a monopoly, the deal did not go through. In 1999, Sprint began recombining its local telecom, long-distance, wireline, and wireless business units into
516-483: A 10-year license-agreement covering current and future patents held by the two companies. The terms of the agreement remain confidential. Previously, Apple ignored HTC's long held rights over the trade name Touch by calling its new iPod range the same. In February 2013, HTC settled with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission concerning lax security on more than 18 million smartphones and tablets it had shipped to customers and agreed to security patches. The HTC One (M7)
602-634: A 102% increase from the prior year. In 2005 it was listed as the fastest-growing tech company in BusinessWeek s Info Tech 100. In 2010 HTC worked with Google to build mobile phones running Google's Android mobile OS such as the Nexus One . In April 2010, HTC grew exponentially after it was chosen by Microsoft as a hardware platform development partner for the now defunct Windows Mobile operating system (based on Windows CE ). HTC invested strongly in research and development , which accounts for
688-523: A 33 percent stake in the music streaming service Tidal . Sprint derives revenue as a wireline IP network operator and as a long-distance telephony provider. Sprint is the United States' fourth largest long-distance provider by subscribers. In 2006, Sprint Nextel exited the local landline telephone business, spinning those assets off into a newly created company named Embarq , which CenturyTel acquired in 2008 to form CenturyLink . SprintLink
774-473: A change from previous launches, the HTC One was made available for purchase on the company website and North American mobile carrier websites on the same day a few hours after the launch. In April 2014, HTC reported sales climbing 12.7 percent to NT$ 22.1 billion, the company's fastest growth since October 2011. In September 2014, Google selected HTC to make its Nexus 9 tablet. In August 2014 HTC announced
860-414: A few key Nextel executives remained, with many former Nextel middle- and upper-level managers having left, citing reasons including the unbridgeable cultural difference between the two companies. In 2006, Sprint spun off its local telephone operations, including the former United Telephone companies and Centel , as Embarq . Sprint's acquisition of Nextel was a disaster from a fiscal standpoint in 2008,
946-512: A manufacturer of notebook computers , HTC began designing some of the world's first touch and wireless hand-held devices in 1998. HTC started making Windows Mobile PDAs and smartphones starting from 2004 under the Qtek brand. In 2006 the range was rebranded as HTC with the launch of the HTC TyTN . In 2007, HTC acquired the mobile device company Dopod International. In 2008, HTC unveiled
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#17327725072631032-424: A nationwide network to provide wireless personal communications service (PCS), and also affirm their support for a single integrated offering of wireless, local telephone and long distance services in a package with cable television service In 1995, Sprint and its cable television associates entered into a partnership with American Personal Communications (APC) to create a digital wireless network. In November 1995,
1118-480: A new company, in an initiative known internally as "One Sprint". In April 2004, the separately traded wireless tracking stock PCS was absorbed into the New York Stock Exchange FON ticker symbol, Sprint's former ticker symbol (FON stood for "Fiber Optic Network", but was also a homophone of the word "phone"). This was challenged in many lawsuits by Sprint PCS shareholders who felt their stock
1204-795: A new logo. In 2013, following the shutdown of the Nextel network and concurrent with the acquisition by SoftBank, the company resumed using the name Sprint Corporation. In July 2013, as part of the SoftBank transactions, Sprint acquired the remaining shares of the wireless broadband carrier Clearwire Corporation that it did not already own. In August 2014, CEO Dan Hesse was replaced by Marcelo Claure . In May 2018, Michel Combes replaced Claure, and had been working to get Sprint's acquisition by its rival T-Mobile through regulatory proceedings. On April 1, 2020, Sprint Corporation completed their acquisition by T-Mobile US , which effectively made Sprint
1290-727: A plan for a strategic partnership with Beats Electronics involving acquiring 51 percent of the company. The 2011 Best Global Brands rankings released by Interbrand, listed HTC at #98 and valued it at $ 3.6 billion. Based on researcher Canalys, in Q3 2011 HTC Corporation became the largest smartphone vendor in the U.S. with 24 percent market share, ahead of Samsung's 21 percent, Apple's 20 percent and BlackBerry 's 9 percent. HTC Corporation made different models for each operator. During early 2012, HTC lost much of this U.S. market share due to increased competition from Apple and Samsung. According to analyst firm ComScore , HTC only accounted for 9.3% of
1376-663: A quarter of its employees. The company's North American headquarters are located in Bellevue , Washington. HTC runs a software design office in Seattle (near its North American headquarters) where it designs its own interface for its phones. In 2011, HTC also opened a research and development office in Durham , North Carolina, a location the company chose over Seattle and Atlanta , to focus on multiple areas of wireless technology. On 17 February 2010, Fast Company ranked HTC as
1462-417: A separate entity, and will remain a CDMA carrier until it is an all-LTE carrier. On April 15, 2013, Dish Network announced a higher bid for Sprint Nextel than the offer placed by SoftBank, with a $ 25.5 billion offer. On June 18, 2013, Dish retracted its bid and decided that it would instead focus on its intent to purchase Clearwire , however on June 26, 2013, Dish also retracted its bid for Clearwire, leaving
1548-425: A strategic alliance with Call-Net Enterprises, a Canadian long-distance service provider, and bought 25 percent of the company. Call-Net's long-distance service was renamed "Sprint Canada" and expanded to include landline and internet services. In 2005, Call-Net and Sprint Canada's 600,000 customers were acquired by Rogers Communications . In March 1993, Sprint merged with Chicago's Centel Corp. Centel remained in
1634-518: A subsidiary of T-Mobile until the Sprint brand officially discontinued in the beginning of August. Leadership, background, and stock changes happened immediately, with customer-side changes happening over time. The Sprint brand officially discontinued on August 2, 2020. Billing was already showing the T-Mobile brand, and on this date all retail, customer service, and all other company branding switched to
1720-756: A two-year contract to be HTC's new "Instigator of Change.". On 27 September 2013, HTC announced that it would sell back its stake in Beats Electronics Following the release of the HTC One, two variants were released to form a trio for the 2013 HTC One lineup . A smaller variant named the HTC One Mini was released in August 2013, and a larger variant named the HTC One Max was released in October 2013. Similar in design and features to
1806-623: A version of HTC Hero supporting Rogers ' and AT&T's 3G bands. One such model version was later released in Canada for Telus 's new HSPA+ network. The phone was made available in the UK on Orange, 3, T-Mobile, BT Broadband Anywhere ( MVNO ), and SIM-free. In Australia, it was available exclusively SIM-free (without a contract) through the Harvey Norman retailer. The Sprint , Cellular South , Cellcom , Bluegrass Cellular , Manitoba Telecom Services , NTelos , and Cox Wireless version of
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#17327725072631892-410: Is a global Tier 1 Internet service provider network, operating an 100G Internet backbone . Customers include large multinational corporations , government agencies, retail and restaurant chains, Tier 2 and Tier 3 ISPs, and medium-to-small businesses. SprintLink has physical presence in 155 countries, including the United States, Western Europe, East Asia, Australia, and India. The network wraps all
1978-623: Is the first phone by HTC to feature a 3.5 mm audio jack, multi-touch ability, the HTC Sense user interface, and a "Lite" version of Adobe Flash . The device was released in Europe in July 2009; and in the U.S., via Sprint on October 11, 2009, and via Cellular South on November 9, 2009. Hero was the first Android phone released in Russia. FCC documents surfaced to show, that there would be
2064-571: The HTC Max 4G , the first GSM mobile phone to support WiMAX networks. HTC joined Google's Open Handset Alliance and then developed and released the first device powered by Android in 2008, the HTC Dream . On October 15, 2009, HTC launched the brand tagline "quietly brilliant"', and the "YOU" campaign, HTC's first global advertising campaign. In November 2009 HTC released the HTC HD2 ,
2150-734: The Mobile World Congress in February 2011, the GSMA named HTC the "Device Manufacturer of the Year" in its Global Mobile Awards. In April 2011, HTC surpassed Nokia as the third-largest smartphone manufacturer by market share, behind Apple and Samsung . On 6 July 2011, it was announced that HTC would buy VIA Technologies ' stake in S3 Graphics . On 6 August 2011, HTC acquired Dashwire for $ 18.5M. In August 2011, HTC confirmed
2236-663: The Open Handset Alliance , a group of handset manufacturers and mobile network operators dedicated to the development of the Android operating system. The HTC Dream (marketed by T-Mobile in many countries as the T-Mobile G1) was the first phone on the market to run Android. Although initially successful as a smartphone vendor as it became the largest smartphone vendor in the U.S. in Q3 2011, competition from Samsung and Apple , among others, diluted its market share, which dropped to just 7.2% by April 2015, and
2322-440: The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC), although a fax service (called SpeedFAX) was permitted. In the mid-1970s, SPC held a contest to select a new name for the company. The winning entry was "SPRINT", an acronym for "Southern Pacific Railroad Internal Networking Telephony". In 1982, it was announced that GTE Corp. had reached an agreement to buy SPC's long-distance telephone operation, including Sprint. The deal
2408-536: The iPhone user interface and hardware. HTC disagreed with Apple's actions and reiterated its commitment to creating innovative smartphones. HTC also filed a complaint against Apple for infringing on five of its patents and sought to ban the import of Apple products into the US from manufacturing facilities in Asia. Apple expanded its original complaint by adding two more patents. On 10 November 2012, Apple and HTC reached
2494-610: The local landline telephone business and spun those assets off into a new company named Embarq , which later became a part of Lumen Technologies under the CenturyLink brand, which remains one of the largest long-distance providers in the United States. Until 2005, the company was also known as the Sprint Corporation, but took the name Sprint Nextel Corporation when it merged with Nextel Communications and adopted its black and yellow color scheme, along with
2580-470: The 2.1 update was officially released by HTC, a few networks refused to allow the Hero phones running on their networks to receive the update. Most notably, Orange in Europe did not announce any official update policy or guidance for the phone despite numerous requests from their customer base until late July 2010. This proved to be so frustrating to consumers that a Facebook group was set up to try to gain more information from Orange and their lack of support for
2666-532: The 31st most innovative company in the world. On 27 May 2011, in response to customer feedback, HTC announced that they will no longer lock the bootloaders on their Android-based phones. HTC sponsored the HTC-Highroad professional cycling team from 2009 to 2011. In 2012, HTC became the official smartphone sponsor of the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League . HTC also became
HTC Hero - Misplaced Pages Continue
2752-502: The Android OS to version 2.1 while incorporating Sense . This news was released via Twitter on December 17, 2009. Sprint further clarified on their own Twitter that the 2.1 update would be released early in the second quarter of 2010. By May 14, 2010, Verizon Wireless had made a system update to Android version 2.1 publicly available for their Droid Eris. The Sprint Hero 2.1 update was released on 19 May 2010. The update to 2.1
2838-551: The Board and Chairman of HTC Foundation. HTC's CFO is Hui-Ming Cheng. In addition to being chair of HTC, Cher Wang is also acting chair of VIA Technologies . HTC's main divisions, including the IA (Information Appliance) engineering division and the WM (Wireless Mobile) engineering division, are ISO 9001 / ISO 14001 -qualified facilities. HTC's sales revenue totalled $ 2.2 billion for 2005,
2924-570: The Brown Telephone Company and Southern Pacific Railroad . Brown Telephone Company was founded in 1899 by Cleyson Brown , to deploy the first telephone service to the rural area around Abilene, Kansas . The Browns installed their first long-distance circuit in 1900 and became an alternative to the Bell Telephone Company , the most popular telephone service at the time. In 1911, C. L. Brown consolidated
3010-541: The Brown Telephone Company with three other independents to form the United Telephone Company . C. L. Brown formed United Telephone and Electric (UT&E) in 1925. In 1939, at the end of the Great Depression , UT&E reorganized to form United Utilities . In 1964, Paul H. Henson became president of United Utilities; two years later, he was named chairman. When Henson began working at
3096-570: The Chicago area and was renamed Sprint Cellular Co. In 1994, Sprint spun off their existing cellular operations as 360° Communications to comply with an FCC regulatory mandate. In 1998, 360 Communications was acquired by Alltel , which was in turn acquired by Verizon in 2009. In 1994, Sprint announces plans for a powerful new venture with three of the nation's major cable television companies, Tele-Communications Inc. (TCI), Comcast Corp. and Cox Cable . The four companies outline plans to build
3182-628: The Connected Officer program for the Los Angeles Police Department in partnership with Samsung , VMware , and Prodapt. Sprint wireline is also responsible for traditional telecommunications relay service (TRS), speech to speech relay service (STS), and captioned telephone service (CTS). Sprint is in the process of upgrading these services from a TDM network to an IP-based network Sprint Corporation offered postpaid wireless voice and data services primarily under
3268-656: The HTC Android 6250. A modified version of the Hero, the HTC Droid Eris, was released on the Verizon Wireless network on November 6, 2009. Pictures of Google's CEO, Eric Schmidt were circulated showing him holding the Droid Eris after a press conference that announced an Android-centric partnership between Verizon and Google. The Verizon Wireless version, unlike the Sprint and GSM versions, features
3354-616: The HTC Hero based on various versions of Android 2.1, including the popular VillainROM, CyanogenMod , and others. Although there is not an official version of Android 2.2 for the Hero, several third-party groups have created functioning ROMs which include this. A popular Android 2.2 ROM for the GSM HTC Hero is FroydVillain. Android 2.3 has also been ported to the GSM HTC Hero by the popular aftermarket firmware creation team CyanogenMod . The final stable version 7.2 (based on Android 2.3.7)
3440-493: The HTC Hero is different from those that are sold in Asia, Canada and Europe. The outer body is significantly altered, with the controversial "chin" that is present on the Asian, Canadian (some providers) and European models being removed in favor of a smooth, beveled surface where all but two of the once raised buttons now lie flat. Also due to performance issues some of the clock animations were removed. Some carriers may market it as
3526-654: The HTC Hero. Nevertheless, on 28 July 2010, part 1 for the 2.1 update was released OTA (over-the-air) to Orange handsets. Three UK released the full 2.1 update OTA on 26 August 2010. The 2.1 update noticeably increased the browser speed and there appears to be an automatic closing of background apps as system resources diminish with increasing multitasking. Telus had also refused to offer guidance or an update for their HTC Hero. While initially slated for release in May 2010, by mid-August no update had yet been released to Telus customers. Furthermore, customer service at Telus complained that
HTC Hero - Misplaced Pages Continue
3612-677: The HTC One, the upgraded aspects of the One Max include a display measuring 5.9 inches (15 cm), a fingerprint sensor and a removable back cover for expandable memory. The product was released into the European and Asian retail environment in October 2013, followed by a US launch in early November 2013. In March 2014, HTC released the HTC One (M8) , the next version of the HTC One flagship, at press conferences in London and New York City . In
3698-463: The Hero on 2-year contracts shortly before and even after Sprint effectively ended the upgrade lifespan of the phone. Widely reported problems with Android 2.1 on the Hero further fueled criticism among customers who felt Sprint had shirked its responsibility to acknowledge and fix confirmed problems with the device. Separately, numerous groups have created custom ROMs for both the CDMA and GSM versions of
3784-587: The Nextel brand to set up networks in many Latin American countries. Following Sprint's purchase of Nextel, Nextel sold all of its investment in NII Holdings. The integration process was difficult due to disparate network technologies. Sprint tried to address this with the advent of PowerSource phones. These phones routed voice call and data services over Sprint's PCS spectrum while maintaining DirectConnect services over 800 MHz spectrum. However, this
3870-512: The Sprint brand. The Sprint Prepaid Group was a division of the company formed in May 2010 that is responsible for the operations of Sprint's pre-pay subsidiaries. SPG's branded products and services are sold via web and available at retailers nationwide, including Best Buy , Walmart , Target and other independent dealers. Boost Worldwide, Inc. was a wholly owned subsidiary of Sprint that provides nationwide, prepaid wireless voice, messaging and broadband data products and services to customers in
3956-450: The T-Mobile brand. New rate plans were also introduced as well for all new and existing customers from both companies, though all will be grandfathered into their current plan for at least 3 years should they choose not to switch to a new T-Mobile plan. Customers with Sprint accounts were fully migrated to T-Mobile in the summer of 2023 officially discontinuing the Sprint brand. The Sprint Corporation traces its origins to two companies,
4042-423: The United States smartphone market as of February 2013. In light of the company's decrease in prominence, Chief Executive Peter Chou had informed executives that he would step down if the company's newest flagship phone, the 2013 HTC One (M7) , had failed to generate impressive sales results. HTC's first quarter results for 2013 showed its year-over-year profit drop by 98.1%, making it the smallest-ever profit for
4128-406: The company wrote down $ 29.7 billion of the $ 36 billion sum it had paid for Nextel in 2005, wiping out 80 percent of the value of Nextel at the time it had been acquired. The write down reflected the depreciation in Nextel's goodwill since the date of acquisition. Prior to their merger, Sprint and Nextel were dependent on a network of affiliated companies. Following the announcement of
4214-595: The company began to offer wireless service under the Sprint Spectrum brand in the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area . This was the first commercial Personal Communications Service (PCS) network in the United States. Although the Sprint PCS service was CDMA , the original Washington-area network used GSM . Eventually, Sprint launched its new nationwide CDMA network, then in 1999 sold
4300-576: The company for the first time. In 1990, Henson retired from United Telecommunications; by this time the company's revenues had grown to $ 8 billion. Sprint also traces its roots back to the Southern Pacific Railroad (SPR), which was founded in the 1860s as a subsidiary of the Southern Pacific Company (SPC). The company operated thousands of miles of track as well as telegraph wire that ran along those tracks. In
4386-524: The company has experienced consecutive net losses. In 2016, HTC began to diversify its business beyond smartphones and has partnered with Valve to produce a virtual reality platform known as HTC Vive . After having collaborated with Google on its Google Pixel , HTC sold roughly half of its design and research talent, as well as non-exclusive rights to smartphone-related intellectual property , to Google in 2017 for US$ 1.1 billion. Cher Wang ( 王雪紅 ) and H. T. Cho ( 卓火土 ) founded HTC in 1997. Initially
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#17327725072634472-532: The company has faced increased competition from other smartphone makers, including Apple, Samsung, and others, which had resulted in a decline in its smartphone sales, as well a major loss of market share. Its smartphone market share had risen back to 7.2 percent in April 2015 due to its strong sales of recent devices, but HTC's stock price had fallen by 90 percent since 2011. In November 2016, HTC reported that it had sold at least 140,000 Vive units, and that each unit
4558-498: The company in 1959, it had 575,000 telephones in 15 states and revenues of $ 65 million. Henson is credited with creating the first major fiber optic network, having recognized it as a way to handle more calls and provide better quality sound. In 1972, United Utilities changed its name to United Telecommunications . In 1980, United Telecommunications began working on a 23,000 mile fiber optic network for long-distance calls. In 1989, this long-distance business became profitable for
4644-551: The company to 80%. On November 7, 2012, Sprint Nextel announced the acquisition of 20 MHz of spectrum and 585,000 customers from U.S. Cellular in Chicago, St. Louis, central Illinois and three other Midwest markets. The deal was expected to close in mid-2013. Prior to July 9, 2013, Sprint Nextel only owned a 50.8% equity interest in Clearwire Corporation ; On December 17, 2012, Sprint Nextel agreed to pay US$ 2.97 per share, US$ 2.2 billion in total, to purchase
4730-524: The company was purchased by the Japanese telecommunications company SoftBank Group . Sprint used CDMA , EvDO and 4G LTE networks, and formerly operated iDEN , WiMAX , and 5G NR networks. Sprint was incorporated in Kansas. Sprint traced its origins to the Brown Telephone Company, which was founded in 1899 to bring telephone service to the rural area around Abilene , Kansas . In 2006, Sprint left
4816-550: The company. United Telecom announced it would complete its acquisition of US Sprint on April 18, 1990. United Telecom later officially changed its name to Sprint Corporation to capitalize on its brand recognition. Sprint Corporation entered the Canadian market in the early 1990s as a reseller of bulk long-distance telephone lines that it bought from domestic companies. Under Canadian foreign ownership regulations, Sprint could not open its own network. In 1993, Sprint entered into
4902-568: The company—the delay of the launch of the HTC One was cited as one of the factors. In June 2012, HTC moved its headquarters from Taoyuan City (now Taoyuan District ) to Xindian District , New Taipei City . On 14 January 2013, HTC launched its smartphones in Burma . In March 2010, Apple Inc. filed a complaint with the US International Trade Commission claiming infringement of 20 of its patents covering aspects of
4988-489: The deal, the company entered into a partnership with Sprint to serve as co-tenants in 1,435 of its locations, beginning on April 10, 2015. Roughly a third of the retail space in each location is dedicated to Sprint products and services, and the stores will ultimately adopt Sprint as their primary brand in place of RadioShack. Sprint stated that this deal would increase the company's retail footprint by more than double. On January 23, 2017, Sprint announced that they were buying
5074-439: The decommissioned GSM infrastructure to Omnipoint which re-launched in May 2000. Omnipoint was later acquired by VoiceStream Wireless, which like Sprint would eventually be acquired by T-Mobile. In September 1996, Sprint announced a deal with RadioShack , and in 1997, Sprint stores opened at RadioShack to offer communications services and products across the United States. On October 5, 1999, Sprint and MCI WorldCom announced
5160-636: The early 1970s, the company began looking for ways to use its existing communications lines for long-distance calling. This division of the business was named the Southern Pacific Communications Company. By the mid 1970s, SPC was beginning to take business away from AT&T , which held a monopoly at the time. A number of lawsuits between SPC and AT&T took place throughout the 1970s; the majority were decided in favor of increased competition. Prior attempts at offering long-distance voice services had not been approved by
5246-629: The fault lies with HTC. On the morning of 25 October 2010, Telus officially pushed down the Android 2.1 update to its clients. Sprint drew the ire of many of its HTC Hero and Samsung Moment customers when it announced in June 2010 that it would be upgrading its Android devices to Android 2.2, but later corrected the statement to say that the upgrade would only be available for the HTC Evo . The criticism had been particularly fierce from those who purchased
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#17327725072635332-567: The first Windows Mobile device with a Touchscreen . The same year, HTC Sense debuted as a user interface which continues to be used as of 2018. In July 2010, HTC announced it would begin selling HTC-branded smartphones in China in a partnership with China Mobile . In October 2010, the HTC HD7 was released as one of the launch models of Microsoft's revitalised Windows Phone . In 2010, HTC sold over 24.6 million handsets, up 111% over 2009. At
5418-569: The future. On 5 February 2019, HTC released its first "Cryptophone", focused on providing universal finance through Bitcoin and creating a portal towards realizing a truly decentralized web . On 11 May 2019, HTC announced that its Cryptophone will be the first smartphone to support a bitcoin full node. On 17 September 2019, HTC appointed Yves Maitre, former executive vice president of consumer equipment and partnerships of Orange, as CEO where Cher Wang will continue her role as chairwoman. On 3 September 2020, HTC CEO Yves Maitre stepped down from
5504-491: The merger agreement, some of these affiliates came forward with strong opposition to the Sprint-Nextel merger on the grounds that the merged company might violate existing agreements or significantly undercut earnings to these affiliates. In order for Sprint Nextel to allay some of this opposition, they initiated discussions of either acquiring some of these affiliates or renegotiating existing agreements. In several cases,
5590-470: The newly formed company was forced to acquire affiliated companies in exchange for their dropping their opposition to the merger. Forsee said that the company would likely have to acquire all of its remaining affiliates. In 2005, Sprint Nextel acquired three of its ten wireless affiliates: US Unwired, acquired in August; Gulf Coast Wireless, acquired in October; and IWO Holdings, acquired in October. Alamosa PCS, which Sprint Nextel acquired on February 2, 2006,
5676-514: The portion of Clearwire shares that Sprint Nextel did not already own. On June 20, 2013, Sprint Nextel increased its offer to $ 5 per share, the transaction was approved by regulators on July 5, 2013, and closed on July 9, 2013, and Sprint Nextel became the complete owner of Clearwire and its assets. On March 31, 2015, the U.S. bankruptcy court approved a $ 160 million takeover of electronics store chain RadioShack by Standard General . As part of
5762-537: The position citing personal reasons. Co-founder Cher Wang then stepped in and is now the current CEO of HTC. The key trends for HTC are (as of the financial year ending December 31): HTC's chairwoman and acting CEO is Cher Wang who is the daughter of the late Wang Yung-ching , founder of the plastics and petrochemicals conglomerate Formosa Plastics Group . Peter Chou serves as head of the HTC Future Development Lab, and HT Cho as Director of
5848-496: The primary reason for its comparative performance, a factor that had been previously cited by the company. During 2013, Microsoft was in negotiations to purchase HTC. This was revealed in 2018 by Risto Siilasmaa , chairman of Nokia , in an interview with the Helsingin Sanomat . Microsoft would eventually purchase Nokia's mobile phone business that year. In August 2013, HTC debuted a new "Here's To Change" global marketing campaign featuring actor Robert Downey Jr. , who signed
5934-588: The revenue to further its investments in "emerging technologies". The company had also cited its increasing VR investments, including its upcoming Vive Pro model, and Vive Focus—a standalone "all-in-one" VR headset unveiled in November 2017. In July 2018, HTC entered into a partnership with games and apps developer and publisher Animoca Brands . This includes product development and joint collaboration in areas such as games, blockchain , artificial intelligence, machine learning, augmented reality and virtual reality. Animoca's games will be pre-installed on HTC devices in
6020-517: The road clear for SoftBank to acquire the company. The United States Federal Communications Commission approved SoftBank's acquisition of a stake in Sprint. The FCC's acting chairwoman Mignon Clyburn and commissioner Ajit Pai both gave statements vociferously supporting the acquisition, saying the deal "serve[s] the public interest". The acquisition was completed on July 10, 2013. On August 6, 2013, SoftBank purchased approximately 2% more shares of Sprint Corporation, increasing its ownership stake in
6106-580: The shirt sponsors for the Indian Super League franchise NorthEast United for the 2014, 2015 and 2016 season. Ahead of the 2015 season, Indian Premier League franchise Kings XI Punjab signed a sponsorship deal with HTC. According to the agreement, HTC would be the team's official principal sponsor, and the company's logo would occupy the right chest position on the Kings XI Punjab playing jersey. HTC sponsors professional eSports teams FaZe Clan , Team SoloMid , Cloud9 , Team Liquid , and J Team , (formerly known as Taipei Assassins ). HTC sponsored
6192-401: The time of the merger announcement, Sprint and Nextel were the third and fifth leading providers in the U.S. mobile phone industry, respectively. Sprint shareholders approved the merger on July 13, 2005. The merger deal was approved by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and U.S. Department of Justice on August 3, 2005. Sprint Nextel was formed on August 13, 2005, when the deal
6278-1135: The way around the world with buried fiber optics in the United States and Europe, and undersea fiber in the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans. SprintLink is responsible for cable maintenance and administration in the TAT-14 Consortium . In 2008, Sprint was upgrading its SprintLink core to 100 Gbit/s lines to offer increased bandwidth. As of June 2012, Sprint picked Ciena for upgrading its Sprintlink core to 400 Gbit/s speeds. In 2007, Sprint launched Ethernet services over its IP/MPLS network to an initial 40-markets. Sprint later expanded their Ethernet services to 65 markets in September 2011. Sprint then launched Ethernet over copper and Ethernet over DOCSIS in 2016 to complement its Fiber Ethernet offerings. Sprint offers its enterprise customers managed web-based services through its Sprint Web Services program. It allows enterprise customers to create managed web-based applications In 2015, Sprint powered
6364-531: The year. On 21 September 2017, Google announced that it would acquire roughly half of the 4,000 employees who worked in HTC's design and research staff, and non-exclusive licences to smartphone-related intellectual property held by HTC, for US$ 1.1 billion. The employees included the team involved with Google's Google Pixel , which was manufactured by HTC. Google stated that the purchase was part of its efforts to bolster its first-party hardware business. The transaction
6450-471: Was being sold at a profit. In January 2017, HTC unveiled its new U series smartphone line, the U Play and U Ultra ; the company described the U series as a "new direction" for its phones, emphasizing an integrated virtual assistant developed by the company. In February 2017, HTC reported that in the fourth quarter of 2016, its operating losses had decreased by 13% year-over-year, citing "robust sales performance" and sequential revenue increases throughout
6536-433: Was completed on 30 January 2018; while HTC will continue to produce its own smartphones, the company has stated that it planned to increase its focus on Internet of Things and virtual reality going forward. On 26 March 2018, HTC reported a quarterly net loss of US$ 337 million in the fourth quarter of 2017, citing "market competition, product mix, pricing, and recognized inventory write-downs". HTC stated that it would use
6622-493: Was completed. Sprint and Nextel faced opposition to the merger, mostly from regional affiliates that provided wireless services on behalf of the companies. These regional affiliates felt that the new company would hinder competition. On September 1, 2005, Sprint Nextel combined plan offerings of its Sprint and Nextel brands to bring uniformity across the company's offerings. Nextel has licensed its identity to NII Holdings, Inc. , of which Sprint Nextel owned 18%. NII has used
6708-460: Was devalued because it was trading at the ratio of 1 share of PCS stock for 1/2 share of FON stock. The PCS shareholders claimed a loss of 1.3 billion to 3.4 billion dollars. On December 15, 2004, Sprint Corporation and Nextel Communications announced they would merge to form Sprint Nextel Corporation . The merger was transacted as a purchase of Nextel Communications by Sprint Corporation for tax reasons; Sprint purchased 50.1 percent of Nextel. At
6794-534: Was later finalized in 1983. In 1986, GTE Sprint merged with the United Telecommunications Inc. property, US Telecom. The joint venture was to be co-owned by GTE and United Telecom named US Sprint Communications. The new entity also included communications firm GTE Telenet, and United Telecom Data communications Co., (formerly known as Uninet). In 1988, GTE sold more of Sprint to United Telecom, giving United Telecom operational control of
6880-741: Was not helping the merger effort, sent the wrong message to employees and contributed to the post-merger cultural clash. To resolve the problem, Hesse decided to consolidate all headquarters operations in the Sprint World Headquarters Campus located in Overland Park, Kansas , a suburb in the Kansas City metropolitan area . On October 14, 2012, the Japanese telecommunications company SoftBank announced it intended to purchase 70% of Sprint Nextel Corporation for $ 20.1 billion. SoftBank stated that Sprint will remain
6966-464: Was not sufficient in coverage, due to the inability to roam on a non-PCS spectrum. Top Nextel Executives began leaving the company immediately after the merger closed. Tim Donahue, the Nextel CEO, stayed on as executive chairman, but ceded decision-making authority to Gary D. Forsee . Tom Kelly, COO of Nextel, took an interim staff position as Chief Strategy Officer. Two years after the merger, only
7052-530: Was officially released on the HTC website for the Sprint (CDMA) version. On June 4, 2010, the Android 2.1 update for the GSM Hero was made available in Taiwan. On June 17, 2010, the first part of Europe was provided the update, the second part on June 28, 2010. The Worldwide English (WWE) version was released on June 28, 2010. HTC suggested that they would not be updating the device further to version 2.2. Although
7138-403: Was released in mid-2013 and, subsequently won various industry awards in the best smartphone and best design categories, but global sales of the HTC One were lower than those for Samsung's Samsung Galaxy S4 flagship handset and HTC recorded its first ever quarterly loss in early October 2013: a deficit of just under NT$ 3 billion (about US$ 100m, £62m). Marketing problems were identified by HTC as
7224-716: Was released on June 16, 2012, and has been reported as fully operational. HTC HTC Corporation ( Chinese : 宏達國際電子股份有限公司 ; pinyin : Hóngdá Guójì Diànzǐ Gǔfèn Yǒuxiàn Gōngsī ), or High Tech Computer Corporation (abbreviated and trading as HTC ), is a Taiwanese consumer electronics corporation headquartered in Taoyuan District , Taoyuan , Taiwan. Founded in 1997, HTC began as an original design manufacturer and original equipment manufacturer that designed and manufactured laptop computers. After initially making smartphones based mostly on Windows Mobile , HTC became one of 34 cofounding members of
7310-466: Was the fourth-largest mobile network operator in the United States, serving 54.3 million customers as of June 30, 2019. The company also offered wireless voice, messaging, and broadband services through its various subsidiaries under the Boost Mobile and Open Mobile brands and wholesale access to its wireless networks to mobile virtual network operators . In July 2013, majority ownership of
7396-603: Was the largest of its affiliate carriers. Other acquired affiliates include Ubiquitel, iPCS, Enterprise, and Northern. In 2021, after merging with Sprint in 2020, T-Mobile acquired the remaining two of Sprint's original ten affiliates, Shentel and Swiftel. Below are companies which Sprint Corporation has acquired: After the Sprint-Nextel merger, the company maintained an executive headquarters in Reston, Virginia and operational headquarters in Overland Park, Kansas . Sprint CEO Dan Hesse recognized that having two headquarters
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