Thoughts on the HTC Desire Eye and the Rise of the Selfie Phone…

HTC-Desire-EYE-Press-Images-2Yesterday HTC took the wraps off of the Desire Eye, a phone similar to the flagship One M8, but made out of plastic, and featuring a 13MP front facing camera with dual LED flash. We’ve seen other companies touting the true “Selfie Phone” from the Lumia 735 to Apple’s new Facetime camera on the iPhone 6. Now HTC is pushing more megapixels into the conversation with the Eye.

It’s not such a crazy idea. The way we create content, and the fact that we don’t often walk around photographers capturing our happy moments. If you own a “nice” camera, chances are pretty good you rarely show up in photos of fun events as you’re usually the one operating the camera.

HTC is banking on the popularity of the selfie, the growing market for video chat applications, and are experimenting with their phone design. It’s not a radical experiment though. Putting more megapixels on a camera doesn’t mean you get better stills or video. It’s an easy headline: “UNBELIEVABLE THIRTEEN MEGAPICKLE FFC WOWZ!”

oppo n1If there’s hardware innovation here, it’s in adding an LED flash to the front face. Hardware really wont sell units though, the experience will, and if HTC can showcase actual improvements to the work flow of content creation, people will buy the Eye, where less well known phones like the Oppo N1 (which also focused on selfies) have faltered.

HTC is smart to create more of an ecosystem, and allow people on non-HTC phones to play too. Social software like Zoe, or support for their Re camera, will extend not only to other Androids, but also the iPhone. Some might call it bloat, but many consumers have started taking Samsung Touchwiz features for granted as “Android”. As HTC is a clear underdog in this fight, they’ve got to build more of a user base, even if those folks aren’t actually customers. Why not Trojan Horse some fun apps onto more popular phones?

Enhanced face tracking, improved split screen and dual view modes, “Crop Me In”, and better self capture options built on timers or voice actions, these all actually improve the experience of capturing and creating content. That HTC is building out their own social network with Zoe, and focusing not only on sharing but also remixing other people’s content, just further shows their focus.

If there’s any concern here, it’s in how cavalier HTC can be with some of their past hardware experiments. OIS on the M7, Fingerprint scanner on the One Max, Duo Camera on the M8, and now we have the Eye. It makes third party developers nervous to build in support for these features if there’s no guarantee we’ll ever see them again on future phones. It’s also frustrating for consumers who might like a feature, and then be left in the lurch when it’s time to upgrade to a newer phone.

Still, individual gimmicks aren’t what really move us. Software and services are key. If HTC needs a Selfie Phone®©™ to get people on board and talking about their new set of services, we’ll consider this progress.

You can catch HTC’s full press event for the Desire Eye and the Re Camera below!