According to the Economic Observer in China, HTC may be in the market for an operating system (OS). In an interview with the Economic Observer, Cher Wang, the chairperson of Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC Corp, was quoted as saying that the company has given it thought and discussed it internally, but would not do so on an impulse.

In the interview, Wang further stated that the company’s advantages lay in its distinctiveness, which enabled it to make unique products on different OS’s. "We can use any OS we want. We are able to make things different from our rivals on the second or third layer of a platform. Our strength lies in understanding an OS, but it does not mean that we have to produce an OS," Wang continued.

The second and third layers that Wang spoke of are allusions to the company’s Sense user interface that is incorporated into its smartphones, and which HTC asserted “provides its smartphones with more user-friendly features and better software integration compared with other Android phones.”

While Wang did not directly refer to HP’s webOS, it seems like the logical, even obvious choice for an available mobile OS that the company may be considering. Additionally, considering that HP purchased the OS from Palm as part of its $1.2 billion acquisition of the company, it would be interesting to see what price they might sell it for (if they do) should HTC express interest in webOS.  

Even so, given the success HTC has with Sense, and the added appeal it has added to its range of Android devices, customising its phones from the bottom up would make sense (no pun intended), and could give the smartphone manufacturers' phones and tablets a further edge.

The announcement came after reports surfaced a while ago that Samsung might purchase HP’s webOS, which Samsung later categorically denied. Additionally, with Google’s recent acquisition of Motorola and Nokia’s partnership with Microsoft, it would come as little surprise for HTC to seek out its own partnerships or means of building on its success with Sense.

In recent news, Samsung Electronics announced the launch of its bada 2.0 software development kit, an application development tool for the Korean tech firm’s own mobile platform.

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