Wang was getting closer to her dream of making HTC-branded mobiles, a cause she had been pushing for years.
The HTC-Highroad rider, a team-mate of Mark Cavendish, proved too strong for the 2008 winner Fabian Cancellara and Philippe Gilbert.
Team Sky's young squad, including British trio Peter Kennaugh, Ian Stannard and Ben Swift, finished 14th, 28 seconds behind HTC-Columbia.
Alongside the HTC-made handset are an altitude and orbit control system, two propulsion setups and a Linux-based computer with a "high-speed" processor.
And last year, HTC snapped up non-Chinese divisions of Dopod, aiming to bulk up the marketing and distribution of HTC-branded phones in Australia and Southeast Asia.
Still, if HTC -- or any other company, for that matter -- sticks with this single-pronged approach, it's never going to win the favor of the true enthusiast.
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While the legal skirmishes go on, HTC's longer-term plan is to distinguish itself in the handset market by offering an HTC-specific experience on both Android and Windows phones.
Remember how we found out that there's a difference between the Google-branded Android firmware and its HTC-modified equivalent, and the latter isn't allowed to feature the silkscreened Google logo?
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Cavendish, 25, is making his debut in the Vuelta a Espana but is joined by only one of the HTC-Columbia line-up that helped him win five stages of the Tour de France in July - Austrian Bernhard Eisel.
Well, we can tell you that it's an HTC S740 -- and we can also tell you that it could be yours.
While at the stand, we were also shown the back cover of an HTC Thunderbolt -- we weren't told the Thunderbolt will be making like the Revolution and getting its own chunky wireless charging adapter, but don't be surprised if it does.
That would make it fatter (as expected) than the 12.3-mm iPhone but skinnier (and a hair wider) than the 18.1-mm HTC Touch Pro and 17-mm Xperia X1.
HTC's first entry into the tablet market, the Android-based HTC Flyer, hasn't grabbed much market share, but give credit to HTC for trying to think differently: The 7-inch Flyer includes a stylus, of all things, on the theory that there are applications where you want an alternative for taking notes to using your finger or tapping a keyboard.
The back of the VX offers a rather minimalistic feel, with the 5-megapixel, rear-facing camera and LED flash on top, HTC logo smack-dab in the center and speaker grille down below just underneath the Beats Audio branding.
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"The HTC One SV joins our award-winning HTC One series to bring an affordable superphone to U.S. customers, " said Mike Woodward, president, North America, HTC.
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While not obvious before, we can clearly see that the arc belongs to the handset's rigid, non-sliding "chin" with lots of logos from HTC, T-Mobile, and Google fighting for visibility.
Whereas the plum-coated HTC Rhyme was aimed toward fashion-forward consumers looking for a lifestyle-management handset, the Rezound -- with its Beats Audio tuning, bundled Beats headphones and high-definition display -- is focusing on a multimedia entertainment experience, one clearly anchored in music.
That device is expected to be an HTC 4.3-inch smartphone called the HTC First that bears a passing resemblance to the iPhone, comes in multiple colors, and packs in the usual mid-range specs at moderate price.
While putting on a brave face, Google has triggered alarm bells for the growing number of handset and tablet manufacturers--like HTC, Samsung, LG and Sony Ericsson--that rely on Android to power their devices.
There have also been long-running rumors that we will see Nexus hardware from more than one manufacturer, although lately whispers have focused on the possibility of a 5-inch phablet from HTC, and a 10-inch Nexus-branded tablet made by Samsung.
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Maps and location content come preloaded on HTC Locations while turn-by-turn navigation can be purchased and downloaded through HTC Locations or HTC Sync.
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Sense is often described as a user-friendly software overlay, but HTC typically describes it as a user-facing experience that unifies its products, differentiates its brand and benefits HTC device owners.
And even if a Google-HTC partnership materializes, HTC would likely be one of several Google hardware partners.
HTC's launched a new flagship handset for Mobile World Congress 2012, the HTC One X -- codenamed Endeavour.
We as customers don't see that many color options from HTC, anyway -- it's mainly black, gray and white these days.
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Hero includes the new HTC Sense widget-based interface that puts at-a-glance info right up front on the home screen where it belongs.
Its concern focused on whether Google would favour Motorola Mobility over handset manufacturers like HTC or Samsung - which also use Google's Android system.
And meanwhile new Android phones from Samsung, HTC and Motorola - now in the hands of Google - will be fighting for their own headlines.
Even so the last year has been tumultuous for HTC as rivals--including China's E28 and Samsung Electronics at the low-end, and Apple at the high-end--have launched snazzy models.
But the real selling point of the E1 is its role in HTC's new e-commerce strategy in China: while you can get hold of one at an authorized HTC store, HTC's Chinese "eShop" throws in custom options for the built-in storage (8 or 16GB), main camera (five or eight megapixels, both with only 720p video capture) and one of the six body colors plus patterns.
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