Slotted in the middle of HTC’s Android phone announcements tonight in Barcelona, the CEO of HTC, Peter Chou, revealed a new development that is the handset maker’s answer to Apple’s iCloud: a deal with Dropbox, currently the name to watch in cloud storage.
HTC says that those who buy an HTC One, the company’s new flagship device, will get 25 gigabytes of storage free for two years – a big deal, considering that currently it costs $9.99 per month for 50 gigabytes of storage (two gigabytes is the only free service offered).
The storage, Chou said, would be enough to store 10,000 high quality photos, and much more besides: the news was unveiled at the same time that HTC announced a series of content and service enhancements for its new line of Android devices, including improved cameras; a new music service that included an extension of its Beats audio service from last year; enhanced video services; and enhanced integration to use the device in-car.
This is all part of HTC’s big fightback strategy, after last year seeing a decline in its momentum in smartphone sales against Samsung and Apple.
It long ago realized that in order to compete against Apple it needs to have compelling devices but also compelling services — and that is what it is trying to aim for with Dropbox and the rest of the content announcements it made today.
We’re interviewing HTC execs later and getting a hands on with the devices and will update more as we learn it.
