HTC CFO가 인터뷰에서 자체 OS에 대한 의견을 표시를 하였다.
최근 Palm이 시장에 매물로 나온 상황에서 HTC가 Palm을 인수할지도 모른다는
분위기에 한층 힘을 줄수 있는 대목일 듯.

HTC가 자체 OS를 가진다면 꼭 Palm일 필요는 없지만 바로 활용하기에 Palm의 OS만 한 수준도
많지 않으므로 호사가들의 이야기는 계속 될 듯.

From : http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=a9YAooOZlAnI

April 13 (Bloomberg) -- HTC Corp., Taiwan’s largest mobile- phone maker, is studying whether to equip phones with its own operating system, a move that may intensify competition with Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp.

“We continue to assess, but that requires a few conditions to justify” having our own system, Cheng Hui-ming, chief financial officer of the Taoyuan, Taiwan-based company, said in a phone interview today.

HTC’s own operating system would enable the company, which designs and produces phones using Google and Microsoft software, to reduce its reliance on outside developers. HTC is among possible bidders for Palm Inc., three people familiar with the situation said this month.

“If you look at the successful smartphone players, like Apple and Research in Motion, a reason for their success is that they have their own platform,” said Steven Tseng, who rates HTC “buy” at RBS Asia Ltd. in Taipei and favors the company having its own operating system in the long term. “The negative is the amount of resources they’d need to allocate.”

Cheng declined to comment on whether HTC has studied Palm for possible acquisition. HTC has no timeframe for deciding whether to have its own platform, he said.

‘Multiple Factors’

“There are many multiple factors to be considered together, rather than a simple statement as to own or not to own” proprietary software, Cheng said.

HTC declined 1.4 percent to close at NT$389 in Taiwan trading.

Palm is working with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Frank Quattrone’s Qatalyst Partners to find a buyer possibly as early as this week, according to the people familiar with the matter. They declined to be identified because a sale hasn’t been announced.

HTC is the world’s largest maker of phones using Microsoft’s Windows Mobile platform and was the first to release a handset based on Google’s Android. This year, it unveiled its low-cost Smart mobile phone based on Qualcomm’s BREW system.

The market share of smartphones using Palm’s WebOS was 0.7 percent in 2009, while handsets using Symbian, Nokia Oyj’s main smartphone software, accounted for 46.9, according to Gartner Inc.

Research In Motion Ltd.’s BlackBerry had 19.9 percent, Apple’s iPhone 14.4 percent and Google’s Android operating system 3.9 percent, according to the February statement from Gartner, of Stamford, Connecticut.

To contact the reporter on this story: Tim Culpan in Taipei at tculpan1@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: April 13, 2010 06:15 EDT