HTC’s Freqs event in Seattle on Thursday saw it reveal a handful of surprise details that also saw it weigh in on phone technology. Product strategy VP Bjorn Kilburn revealed that customers in a study, when pressed, preferred having a thinner phone over getting more battery life. Battery life was still an issue, but it had led to phones like the 0.31-inch One S instead of a planned thicker phone with a 3,000mAh battery pack.
The statements may have incidentally and partly helped explain the iPhone’s continued growth, even as Android’s share grew at the same time. Apple, after Steve Jobs’ return to the company, has focused on thinness as a central feature where many Android phones in 2011 got thicker to accommodate LTE and bigger screens. Many have had to make their phones thicker as a matter of course to allow for replaceable batteries, both out of short battery lives on the phones themselves and on the assumption that users wanted the option.
Extra details emerging from the event also said that, despite the 16-megapixel Titan II, the company was focusing on camera aperture and sensor pixel size over sheer density, again taking a parallel path like that Apple took with the iPhone 4S. One unique trick to HTC was its Media Link HD support: new Android 4.0-based phones could both share their Wi-Fi and connect with it, letting them share an Internet connection even as they talked to a media hub or similar device.
In a final tease, HTC showed that it was working on back cover protective shells specific to the One X, which is due on AT&T next month. One of the two designs planned would have a deliberately ‘vented’ design that would clip on quickly to the back. Timing wasn’t given out, but it may be ready in time for the May 6 appearance.
