HTC has been struggling on the market for the past few weeks, with revenues and stock values dropping, even though they had had pretty nice success rates with the HTC One M8, One E8, Desire 820 and HTC One M7. Nonetheless, the company might be in need of some diversification in order to remain among the leaders in the technology market.
Earlier, we had heard rumors of HTC dropping its smartwatch plans, only to pick them up yet again, reinforcing the belief that the company might be struggling. An HTC smartwatch is probably in the works and is pegged for a 2015 launch, to rival the Apple Watch, which will probably be launched at the beginning of next year.
Today’s news, on the other hand, reveals something entirely new from HTC. It seems as if the company has somewhat reoriented itself towards a different niche in technology: medical technology. Known leak provider Upleaks has posted some renders or photos of a suite of medical equipment that HTC is supposedly designing. For HTC to enter the medical technology market would be a bold move, but that’s what might get HTC out of the blunder it’s in at the moment.
The HTC manufactured medical devices shown in the images at Upleaks reveal a suite named Tricorder, which might ring a bell for Star Trek fans. The Tricorder suite includes a Tricorder Scope System, Tricorder Breath System, Tricorder Urine System and Tricorder Blood System. With all the hype around Apple’s HealthKit and Google’s Google X and Life Sciences programs, HTC manufacturing smart medical equipment that would make health metrics more accurate would not be a bad idea.
The HTC Tricorder suite offers users the possibility of taking their own measurements and gives feedback on what the devices pick up. The information HTC Tricorder devices pick up will be synced with a smartphone which will show detailed analysis of the recordings. In the pictures, the application coupled with the Tricorder Scope System is able to determine the presence of otitis, whilst the Tricorder Breath System can tell whether you have pneumonia or not.
These HTC Tricorder devices have not been confirmed by the company, but HTC getting in on the medical tech market would be a well-received improvement and would probably help increase revenue and market value for the company. HTC still has a big announcement to make on October 8 at the “Double Exposure” event, probably regarding the HTC Eye and maybe even the Nexus 9 tablet. Maybe the HTC Tricorder suite is a back-up plan in case the Eye or the Nexus 9 don’t gather the crowd they were supposed to, but that’s highly unlikely since people are hyping around the two new arrivals.
You can check out the pictures of the HTC Tricorder suite, courtesy of Upleaks, below.