HTC

High Tech Computer Corporation , known by its abbreviation HTC, is a Taiwan-based manufacturer of primarily Microsoft Windows Mobile-based portable devices. It was founded on May 15, 1997 and initially was strictly an outsourcing company, an original design manufacturer (ODM). Today, HTC provides its own HTC self-branded products, as well as supporting its operator-branded products and its original equipment manufacturer (OEM) partners. HTC also owns Dopod as a subsidiary company. HTC is also a member of the Open Handset Alliance, meaning that it will conform to standards that allow the open source Android operating system to run on its hardware; The T-Mobile G1 (originally conceived as HTC Dream) will be the first phone to the market that will use the Android mobile device platform. It was released for pre-order through T-Mobile on September 23, 2008, and became available in stores on October 22, 2008.

HTC's chairwoman is Cher Wang, daughter of one of Taiwan's wealthiest men Wang Yung-ching, while the President of the company is Peter H.T. Chou. In addition to being Chairperson of HTC, Cher Wang is also acting Chairperson 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.

The company's growth has accelerated dramatically after being chosen by Microsoft as a hardware platform development partner for the Windows Mobile operating system (based on Windows CE). HTC's sales revenue totalled $2.2 billion for 2005, a 102% increase from the previous year. It was listed as the fastest growing tech company in BusinessWeek's Info Tech 100 .

In October 2008, T-Mobile released G1, the first smartphone to use Google's Android software and compete head-on with the Apple IPhone. The phone hardware is manufactured by HTC and is compliant with the open standards telecom effort of the Open Handset Alliance.