HTC haven’t exactly found the success they were hoping for with the launch of the HTC One (M9), with what can only be described as a fairly lack-lustre quarterly financial result in April, which should (one might hope) have been buoyed by sales of the M9. Those sales may not have eventuated quite as quickly as HTC would have liked.
HTC appears to be looking elsewhere to find some increased profits, and according to a report from @upleaks, that ‘elsewhere’ could be Blinkfeed, by changing the application display relevant sponsored advertising as well as products, accessories and service promotions.
The mocked-up imagery appears to show HTC entering the advertising market with one of their most popular applications, which is (by any measure) a risky move. Blinkfeed’s success has been based on allowing users some pretty fine controls over the content they can see (and more importantly, perhaps, the content they don’t want to see), and inserting advertisements into the fray might not work as HTC expects.
If you’re an HTC user with Blinkfeed, would HTC seeking to monetise the service turn you away and cause you to look elsewhere? Do you use Blinkfeed all that much these days? Are you one of many who’d forgotten it even existed?
I agree that HTC should monetise BlinkFeed to support their profitability.. However, I believe advertising is not the way. The two apps that HTC has done well recently are BlinkFeed and Zoe. So unless they are somehow locked to HTC handsets, why is it that HTC are not selling these on the market and making it available for everyone? If advertising on BlinkFeed arrives, I will actually switch it off on my M7.