Could this really be any clearer to average smartphone users on the Verizon Wireless network? What does Verizon have against HTC? I have noticed a trend that I am sure others have noticed as well, the nation’s largest mobile network has a bad habit of downplaying HTC smartphones when they are released. Most HTC phones that come to Verizon’s network are mid-ranged or quickly get knocked off the throne by Samsung or Motorola with something that has a slightly better processor.
The first time I noticed this was happening, was with the Droid Eris which released the same day as the OG Motorola Droid. Everyone remembers the Motorola Droid, but honestly, who remembers the HTC Droid Eris. I remember going to a local Verizon store on release day and how store reps were shoving the Droid down my throat. The hype with the Droid over the Droid Eris was that it had a newer version of Android, plus better internal and external hardware. So why release two Android phones on the same day when one is not able to fight on its own? Sadly, the Droid Eris was outdated the day it was available in stores.
The HTC Rezound was shadowed by the Motorola Razr line despite being such a good quality phone; with a stellar display and not to mention a $100 pair of iBeats earbuds. Was a bigger battery that much more valuable than the HTC Rezound? The Motorola Droid Charge was positioned to stomp on HTC’s thunder last year, but fortunately there were some production challenges that caused the Droid Charge to fizzle to a mediocre release that was postponed a bunch.
The day the new HTC Droid Incredible 4G hits the market just so happens to be the same day pre-ordered Galaxy S III’s start showing up on people’s door steps and flooding technology blogs all over the Internet. WHAT!?! Those pre-orders showed up a whole week before the in-store release date and though I am not sure who had more to do with it, Verizon or Samsung, I know that it cast the same shadow over the Droid Incredible 4G as was thrown over the Droid Eris over two years ago.
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I’ve also noticed that Verizon doesn’t allow some of HTC’s homebrewed apps like the HTCSense.com integration and when I approached both sides (HTC and Verizon) they basically pointed the finger at one another. I really haven’t seen a big hitting HTC phone on Verizon’s network or at least the ones that have come close have just missed the mark. The HTC Droid Incredible 4G is a decent phone, but was hurt when Verizon passed on the opportunity to offer it as an HTC One model with the new camera chip and a 1.5 GHz dual-core S4 processor.
I absolutely love that the Droid Incredible 4G has NFC and I look forward to putting Android Beam to good use one day. I also need to add that I am a fan of Verizon’s network above all others. I say this having tested many smartphones on every major carrier and Verizon performs the best where I live and sometimes travel to. I just want to know where the bad blood is coming from and how can we get rid of it and get HTC in the Verizon spotlight.
I don’t think Verizon is intentionally trying to screw HTC over, but it’s clear that they are not giving them the attention they deserve. I think a little of the blame fall back on HTC. They need to stop caving into Verizon’s demand for custom handsets (DROID Incredible 4G LTE) which are sub-par when compared to HTC’s flagship One series.
I honestly think the HTC One V would do a lot better on Verizon than the DIN 4G LTE since it would sell for around $100 on contract.
I can believe it, verizon has nasty ways about the way they do things…..remember the thunderbolt, what happened to that….it could hold its own up until now.. but sadly not one mention of it at all.
Its prob the fact that ALL HTC phones can get a bootloader unlocked and Verizon has a prob with having full control over the ($$$ Computer) Phone that we pay for hence why the Galaxy S III for verizon is the ONLY one with a locked bootloader in the WORLD!! Prob worst move they have ever done…..wonder how meny people will return it and go to another company….my guess is alot.
I doubt many people would leave a carrier over something as trivial as a locked bootloader. These things always seems to work themselves out through the dev community anyways.
Verizon has the best QOS and if you are lucky enough to have the grandfathered unlimited LTE data plan, that thing is unbeatable.
I have noticed this as well. It seemed like this phone was ready to be released a month ago and Verizon wouldn’t do it. But instead they wait till right before the galaxy S3 is released to do it that doesn’t make any sense to me . But nothing Verizon has done the last few months makes any sense to me. I’m going to be honest I like the the 4g Lte but to me its not really different from the rezound and i was really hoping for the one x i think that would have been a game changer. So I think i will pass on the 4g Lte
Your observations are not off the mark. Verizon is always super careful about its network and what is running on it. The large hacker community for HTC phones is probably the reason Verizon doesn’t like to publicize their HTC offerings.
I’ve had the same experience in Verizon stores. At one of them, they would keep talking to me about how great the Razr was. As soon as I asked for the Rezound, they just pointed at where I could find it and they proceeded to offer the Razr to the next available customer.
Maybe a part of it is just that the larger and more well established brands (Motorola, Samsung, Apple) just have more pull at Verizon, more marketing muscle, and more money. I don’t imagine it is too difficult for them to sweeten their deals with Verizon so that Verizon pushes their phone. Its evident that their employees have been trained to do so.