http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2017/09/21/can-google-and-htc-crack-the-apple-samsung-smartphone-duopoly/ >Google late Wednesday announced that it would pay $1.1 billion for employees from HTC's smartphone unit, prompting waves upon waves of speculation about what might come next from this hookup. >But I have one hope: that Google's clout and HTC's design can give us something to challenge Apple and Samsung.