HTC's Chief Product Officer talks about 8X design in comparison to the Lumia 920

Jeff Blagon over at The Verge recently spoke with Kouji Kodera, Chief Product Officer at HTC, and picked his brain about design differences and similarities between them and Nokia. It’s an interesting short read and we’ve pulled some of the more relevant parts about Windows Phone for you.

When the HTC 8X was unveiled a few months back, the first thing on everyone’s mind was how it “borrowed” the design of the Lumia line. When pressed about the inspiration from Nokia, Kouji went on the defense and pulled out an 8X and Lumia 920 for comparison. Letting the devices answer the question themselves, he instead answered the question in a somewhat roundabout way. This was his response:

"If you look into the fashion industry, there are colors of the season all the time. In the fashion industry, those are decided two or three years in advance of those materials arriving to the market… and for those designers who get that information, it’s coming from a common source. There are three influential color designers in the world, all in France and Europe. That’s only three firms. So the source is very limited and everybody goes there, regardless of industry."

Not the most direct answer to a question, but it’s what we have for now. Later on in the piece he is questioned on why HTC is even focusing on Windows Phone and not concentrating all on Android. The biggest argument for that approach would be to avoid having to pay a licensing fee for Windows Phone and its small market share. Kouji responds:

‘While it’s true that Windows Phone has a license fee and that the core Android OS is free, once you add software your license fees go up accordingly. The biggest difference is that Google doesn’t do any advertising for Android, while Microsoft pays to promote Windows Phone on its own. So you can’t compare categorically just on the basis of license fees… the bigger factor is how strong the products are and whether or not people will buy them."

A wise answer about something a lot of armchair tech pundits seem to gloss over, Microsoft helps out immensely with advertising for the entire platform. Another interesting piece of information related to design of the 8X and 8S was how much influence Microsoft had over the design. The answer is none. Microsoft instead wanted HTC to focus on the hardware as it plays to their strengths as a company.

What do you think, is the design of the 8X just part of the next smartphone zeitgeist or did HTC take a page from the Lumia handbook?

Souce: The Verge

Sam Sabri