Amazon and HTC did get into the limelight last year, where there were whispers of a HTC-manufactured Amazon handset. Of course, as the passage of time has shown, Amazon rolled out the Amazon Fire Phone this year, and in light of sputtering sales figures, the Fire Phone’s price was slashed to just $0.99. Still, what transpired last year that resulted in such a rumor? Apparently, a report mention that HTC was about to work with Amazon in order to deliver a smartphone that is highly affordable.
Just how would HTC benefit from such an arrangement? Apparently, the whole point of such an exercise would benefit HTC as it provides the company with an opportunity to counterbalance a slow selling high-end line with a low-end model, as well as share its potential customers a testament to its capability. In the same report, the top executives at AT&T were rather livid when they heard that AT&T would not be an exclusive carrier for the low-end Amazon handset, and decided not to offer support for a high-end Amazon handset.
This caused Amazon to stop working with HTC, but simultaneously, speculation arose that Amazon did put forward an offer to purchase HTC, although that deal was thumbed down by HTC co-founder Cher Wang.
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