HTC secured this co-development project partly because the opportunity was less attractive to major phone manufacturers. The initial order size from BT was relatively small, which did not appeal to major handset manufacturers such as Nokia and Motorola. Furthermore, traditional handset makers, like Nokia, did not seriously consider the offer from Microsoft to promote its platform for smartphones.
HTC's fist joint research project with BT began in 1999 and lasted for three and half years, during which the R&D teams to both sides worked in close proximity. BT invested almost
US$20 million in the joint project, which involved six sites in three continents, including HTC in Taiwan, BT in London, Microsoft in Seattle and several offices of Texas Instruments (TI) in the United states, France and Germany. BT promised to buy a minimum of 500,000 smartphones from HTC upon its launch.