HTC Frequencies Asia: Talking technology today and tomorrow

MANILA, Philippines - How often does anyone get invited to a conference like HTC’s Frequencies Asia that’s supposed to be an endless conversation about technology? Fact is, this is the first HTC Frequencies event happening July 9-11 in Asia (Bangkok) with top media owners, chief/senior editors of online and offline publications from Asia Pacific as invitees.

Arriving the day before, we were ferried in a limo to our hotel, Sofitel So on North Sathorn Road, Silom, Bangrak, Bangkok, where we got a royal welcome with cocktails that soothed our weary spirits. Today, after a hearty breakfast at the hotel’s Red Oven, we all go up to the Meeting Room Ballroom 2 for the one-day conference. I look for my name card on the table and notice that I’m the only female in this group (there are only three other females out of the 40 or so attendees).  Also, the only other Pinoy in this conference — Abe Olandres, an Ateneo Computer Engineering graduate and author of the YugaTech blog — is with another group.

“We intentionally put different people in different groups so you could talk and share ideas,” explains a beaming Shane Chiang of HTC Corporation Media & Communications, Asia Pacific.

Shane invites everyone to get to know each other. I smile at the guy beside me, but he’s too busy fiddling with one of his gadgets. I notice that all the other guys in this room are each carrying at least three gadgets, including a laptop. And everyone, including the speakers, is casually dressed in tees and rubber shoes, like we were just going to an outdoor barbecue.

“For tonight’s dinner, somebody asked if shorts and sandals are allowed,” Shane shares. “Yes, of course, you can wear shorts and sandals — this is Thailand, be as comfortable as you like.”

We all settle ourselves comfortably in our respective seats and prepare to listen to the three main speakers flown in just for this conference: Justin Huang of HQ HTC Corporation Innovation and Design team; Justin Zhang, head of Product Portfolio, South Asia, HTC; and John Stefanac, head of Asia & Pacific, Qualcomm, who came in from Hong Kong.

“When HTC designs a phone, we always keep in mind the user experience,” says Justin Huang. “We try so hard to make the phone comfortable in your hand — it’s soft, even the texture of the surface is important to us. But the most important thing is the power function — we take this, into consideration from the very beginning of the design, which makes HTC very different from all other manufacturers of smartphones. The engineering, the design,  and more power function so you can truly enjoy your phone.”

Going back to what happened earlier (when everyone was asked to talk about his favorite device/gadget), John Stefanac banters, “I’m a bit disappointed when I wasn’t asked to stand up to talk about my favorite gadget.  Quite a lot of you said their favorite gadget is their car. I’m envious because I live in Hong Kong and I don’t have a car.”

Another said that his favorite device is a battery pack, and everyone nodded with so much energy.

John confesses he actually owns five connected devices — phones, tablets. He asks us, “How many of you here have more than five gadgets?”

To answer his question, countless hands are raised. “Now, I’m even more embarrassed,” says a blushing John.

He points out, “Every single one of my devices had been HTC, and I’m using less than 1/10th of my phones’ capabilities. How many of you understand the capabilities of your devices?”

He recounts, “Back when I was born (1961), we didn’t have any mobile phone. Majority of the people here don’t know what the world was like without the mobile phone or access to mobile technology. The industry has moved tremendously in the last five years.”

John tells us more about Qualcomm: “Every single one of your 3G and up device today contains Qualcomm intellectual property, so everyone of your devices ahs Qualcomm in it. We actually charge a fee for the technology that we put in, but we bring back the innovation we create into the industry. But we can’t do this by ourselves, a lot of the technology you’re enjoying in your device is because of the collaborative efforts we have with our partners like HTC. There’s no other platform today or in history that’s as large as mobile, nothing comes close. Did you know that more people today have access to mobile phone than to drinking water or to electricity?”

I can believe that, as I reach for the bottled water in front of me.

Needless to say, we’re now able to do a lot of things with smartphones, anytime, anywhere, anyhow. John observes, “In many markets like Thailand, people’s first experience with the Internet is through a smartphone. Before, if I wanted to find something that I needed the Internet for, I’d wait to go home. Now, I just pull out my smartphone. I call this generation ‘we want information now, we don’t have to wait.’ That day is gone when we just text and call. Now, with our smartphones, we can surf the Internet, listen to music, do our shopping, buy movie/theater tickets, take photos, etc. — wherever we are, in a matter of seconds.”

John hastens to add, “The demands we put on these devices are extraordinary. So there’s an enormous amount of pressure we’re putting on companies like HTC to deliver a nice, cool, sexy product with all this functionality and a longer battery life. As consumers, we want the lightest, the highest, the fastest. Technology has far outstripped the capabilities and evolution of power of batteries. We do recognize that at Qualcomm and ensure that you have all that functionality in one single chip that uses less power and technology that allows you to charge your battery quicker. But we’re not just a chip company, we do recognize other technologies, not just cellular. You have all these functionalities, but you can’t call or connect. You need to look at all these together end to end, how these functionalities should work together. We’re doing a lot of work with operators like in the Philippines.”

He asks us, “Has anybody seen a Snapdragon (a platform for use in smartphones, tablets, and smartbook devices) processor? 850 different devices using Snapdragon will be announced and more than 475 devices in production are going to be launched over the next 12 months. Our consumption of data is constantly increasing; by 2020, we’ll be consuming 1,000 times more data.”

And with all this data and info fluttering around in our heads, it was about time we got to know more about the new HTC Butterfly S.

“Butterfly S brings all the best of HTC innovations in one phone plus a battery that truly lasts long,” says Justin Zhang. “We aim to bring a better music experience, a better front camera experience; now you can take better pictures of yourself with your friends. It’s all about giving consumers a choice.”

Like moths attracted to flames, Butterfly S has been drawing a lot of female consumers. “Because it’s got different colors, it’s got a sleek design, it’s pretty cool in your hand, and it’s got a longer battery life,” Justin explains.

Other specs that will make Butterly S fly off the shelves on the market: 5-inch full HD LCD 3 (1920×1080 pixels) display, a more powerful 1.9GHz quad-core Snapdragon 600 processor paired with Adreno 320 GPU and 2GB of RAM at its heart, 16GB of internal storage that can be expanded using a microSD card; the same 4-megapixel UltraPixel camera found on HTC One, supplemented with a 2.1-megapixel front camera, expanded HTC BlinkFeed, Instagram integration, enhanced quick setting menu and lock screen widget, an improved Zoe and about 12 new themes for video highlights, among a thousand and one amazing features.

In conclusion, we’re asked what we think would be the next big thing in technology. My groupmate Ahmad Lakman Aribowo of Selularonline draws up this list: quantum connectivity even when your phone is switched off; hologram projection technology that will enable things to be viewed as three-dimensional images; technology implanted in your skin so you don’t need to carry gadgets around.

We could talk on and on and on about technology, but it’s time to call it a day and say hello to the world outside — and maybe soar like a butterfly!