An interview with HTC chief Peter Chou and Chairwoman Cher Wang for the news agency Financial Times revealed that the company had worked with Microsoft Corp to produce the latter's smartwatch years ago. Although the interview did not indicate which smartwatch did HTC helped make with Microsoft, The Next Web pointed out in its article that Microsoft released a smartwatch called SPOT, or Smart Personal Object Technology. Considered a pioneering technology in wearable devices, Microsoft utilized FM waves to provide information in smartwatches. Watchmakers Fossil, Suunto and Tissot had offered watches with the SPOT technology. Microsoft decommissioned the technology product in 2008.
On the other hand, the struggling smartphone maker said that although wearable devices had been trending in the market, HTC does not see investing its time and money in this market in the meantime. However, Wang said that its new tablet to be released in the future would look good and had promised that it would make a noise in the mobile devices market.
No thanks to Samsung and Apple, HTC had been one of the many smartphone makers who had been losing a chunk off its market share to 9.3% as of February 2013. HTC reported a decrease in revenue in 2012 to USD9.84 billion. Its total equity last year also decreased to merely USD2.76 billion.
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