HTC’s investment in OnLive didn’t really pan out, but that’s not keeping the company from investing in other ventures. On the sale day that HTC announced it would be writing off its $40 million OnLive investment; the company released a short statement regarding a $35 million investment in U.S.-based Magnet Systems. The investment in Magnet Systems grants HTC a 17 percent stake in the company.
According to HTC’s statement: “The investment will bring social, mobile, and cloud capabilities to HTC’s portfolio of service offerings to its mobile enterprise customers.” There are a lot of blogs and news sites out there who think HTC will be working with Magnet Systems to develop its own cloud computing platform to compete with Microsoft, Apple and even Google, but that’s probably the last thing on HTC’s mind.
The only real product in Magnet System’s portfolio is a mobile application called SalesWIN – an intuitive and easy-to-use business solution application which leverages social media integration to help sales teams acquire more business. The application features CRM integration, file sharing, sales dashboard and account management. SalesWIN is still not a hugely popular application for mobile sales forces, but it has a lot of potential. HTC’s investment in Magnet Systems could turn into an interesting partnership with deep SalesWIN integration into HTC’s contact, calendar, notes and other applications.
Do you think this type of strategic partnership to gain traction with enterprise consumers will help HTC in the long run?
Source: ZDNet
