HTC could develop its own mobile operating system in the future if it finds itself too constrained by rules imposed by Google and Microsoft on the use of their operating systems (Android and Windows Phone respectively). In an interview with Pocket-lint, HTC’s director of User Experience, Drew Bamford said:
“I wouldn’t preclude HTC in the future doing something on a different operating system or even doing our own operating system. I don’t think that’s out of the question, because our goal is to address the needs of our users, and if we don’t have the freedom to do what we need to on a given platform we’ll try another platform or create our own.”
Bamford does admit that the possibility is remote given as he expects that Microsoft will loosen its constraints in the future. It’s not clear whether he believes Google will do the same given its Honeycomb release is expected to focus heavily on the user interface in a bid to do away with custom UI layers.
It’s clear that HTC wants to retain the ability to differentiate its devices from those of the competition with add-ons such as HTC Sense.