We have seen and experienced a remarkable evolution since 1990’s in the mobile device market. Among these, HTC is a popular name that has been quickly taking over the market for mobile phones. Founded in 1997, Taiwan based HTC (High Tech Computer Corp) is the World’s leading manufacturer of Windows mobile devices. They design, manufacture and market innovative, feature rich Smartphone and PDA Phone devices.

HTC devices carry the unique tradition of providing “Smart mobility” to everyone. They have made a great progress in a very short time by introducing a wide range of popular Smartphones, Pocket PCs and finally now Ultra mobile PC. Another major achievement made in the year 2007 was its alliance with Google Android. Looking at the rising demand of HTC devices, they are expected to generate 20 percent growth rate for 2008 as they hope to continue building their own brand to drive sales.

Differentiating itself from the rest of the competitors, HTC recently came up with its new TouchFLO technology embedded in HTC Touch that allows users to use their fingertips to launch applications and make phone calls. Other than being well known for its Smartphones, HTC has launched some highly admired Pocket PCs such as Touch Dual and HTC Touch Cruise. HTC Cruise is integrated with GPS capabilities so that the device users can easily “cruise” with it when they are out for travel. Their next addition HTC Shift is the first Ultra Mobile PC (UMPC) released by HTC. The Shift combines the power of Windows Vista and advanced wireless connectivity into an innovative and compact design that creates a new paradigm for mobile computing.

HTC is one of the fastest growing companies in the mobile device market.

HTC Advantage is another new release that delivers extreme portability by leveraging the mobile office strengths of Windows Mobile 6 and advanced wireless connectivity in one of the smallest mobile computer designs available. On exploring the progress made in the Smartphone market, HTC S710 is the first Smartphone with a stylish slide out QWERTY keyboard. It is packed with lots of innovative capabilities such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, email, multimedia, Windows mobile 6 and a lot more.

HTC’s devices are ideal for enterprise customers because of their flexibility by which company-personalized software and user interfaces can be easily integrated by the supplier. There is variety of third party applications available in the market, ranging from utility to business, lifestyle to entertainment, travel to health, all designed to enhance HTC’s abilities. Some prominent in-built applications are voice, email, SMS, internet access, data communications and electronic diary/calendar/personal organizer and more.

HTC devices are rapidly gaining popularity but they still have to face a constant challenge of competing with leading manufacturers like Nokia, Samsung, Motorola, and Sony Ericsson in the years to come. In the end, looking at the progress and capabilities of these devices, we can say that HTC has all the growing trend of becoming the next sensation among users.

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When you’re in need of directions, there’s no better device than a GPS.

But when it comes to mapping out winners and losers in the GPS devices marketplace, we turn to the guidance of our 15,000-member ChangeWave research network. And what they’ve told us is that Garmin (GRMN) – the top GPS manufacturer in the world – has achieved near total domination of the U.S. marketplace.

During February we conducted two ChangeWave surveys on global positioning systems – one on consumer GPS trends (n = 3,773) and the other on corporate purchasing trends (n = 2,013). Here’s what we found:

Consumer GPS Trends

Our February 18-25 survey of consumers who own a GPS navigation device, shows Garmin with a 56% market share – an increase of 4 percentage points since the previous survey in January 2008. Garmin’s percentage towers over its closest rival Magellan, which captured only 12%.

Looking at the next 90 days, Garmin (54%; up 5-pts) remains first on the map in terms of planned consumer purchases of GPS navigation devices. TomTom is second with 8% (down 1-pt), and Magellan has fallen to third place with just 4% (down 2-pts).

Corporate GPS Trends

In our February 11-15 corporate buying survey, Garmin is also the dominant leader with a hefty 58% share of the corporate GPS market. That’s a full 11-pts higher than the previous corporate buying survey in November 2007.

Magellan also gained some corporate ground since the previous survey (12%; up 4-pts), even as TomTom’s numbers have fallen to 9%, down 3-pts since November.

Going forward it’s more of the same, as Garmin is dominating planned corporate GPS purchases for the 2nd Quarter with a 56% market share That’s a huge 10-pt jump since November.

Magellan takes second with 10% (up 2-pts), while TomTom limps in at 5% (down 7-pts).

Best Quarter in History? Now Wait a Minute.

Garmin’s February 20th quarterly earnings call has confirmed our ChangeWave survey findings, with the company stating flat out that it was the “best quarter in our history.”

Garmin reported earnings per share of $1.39, on sales of more than $1.2 billion – a 99% increase from a year earlier, with profits up an impressive 70%. Analysts had projected earnings of just $1.12 per share. To top it off, the company stated that its outlook for the rest of 2008 remained strong.

So with all that good news, you might wonder why Garmin’s share price took a big 20% hit in the weeks immediately following their quarterly earnings announcement. Or why Garmin’s stock price is now down nearly 60% from its 52-week high.

According to Wall Street analysts, the combination of significantly lower profit margins for Garmin (down more than 15%) and a retrenchment in U.S. consumer spending has undermined Garmin’s stock price. In addition, Garmin’s average unit selling price dropped precipitously last quarter, and their CFO recently predicted it will drop another 20% in 2008.

Another factor is the continued slowdown in U.S. consumer spending. Our February survey found an astonishing two-in-five U.S. respondents (39%) saying they’ll spend less over the next 90 days than they did a year ago – 5-pts worse than our January 2008 survey.

The decline in spending is occurring across all income levels. But most ominously – not only for Garmin but for the entire GPS devices industry – the survey showed consumer electronics spending in the midst of a major slowdown.

To put this in perspective, it’s the weakest outlook for electronics spending ever recorded in a ChangeWave survey.

Given such a slowdown, it’s understandable why Garmin and so many other high flying electronics stocks have had an extremely rough go of it lately. But despite shrinking profit margins and an extremely tough consumer spending environment, our latest ChangeWave surveys show Garmin is gobbling up share in the high growth GPS market.

The verdict is out on whether Garmin can return to its previously lofty heights – but it’s a company investors should be watching closely.

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