Taiwanese smartphone manufacturer HTC has had more than its fair share of ups and downs over the years. If you’ve ever ventured into Android handsets, you’ve probably owned – or at least thought about owning – one HTC device at one time or another. It’s hard to deny that they’ve made some notoriously great contributions to the smartphone industry. On the flip side, they’ve also made some arguably poor decisions that have led it to become somewhat of an unstable force rather than the unstoppable one that they probably ought to be.

Almost every manufacturer has had their struggles, but in my opinion HTC seems to have just as many strokes of bad luck as they do good. It always seems to be a toss-up on whether it will be a good year or a bad year for them, but it also seems like they’re trying to figure out how to get back in the people’s good graces for good.

For instance, the HTC One M9 may not have changed much in design from last year’s HTC One M8, but they did finally change the rear-facing camera to a 20-megapixel shooter. The 4-megapixel “UltraPixel” camera that debuted on the M7 had been under heavy scrutiny since Day 1, and many were surprised that the same camera made a second appearance in the M8. Better late than never, right?

However, even the upgraded 20-megapixel camera on the M9 had a hard time achieving positive press. Although it seems that the outcries of how badly the device performed have died down with problem-solving software updates, I think the fact that the camera had so many problems right out of the box is what ultimately killed it for the M9.

But they did try, and they did change things up eventually. They also tried to branch out with "mini" versions and "max" versions, attempting to cater to all kinds of smartphone users. Even through the bad times, HTC keeps on chugging along, trying to figure out their next best move.

In recent mobile-related news, HTC is launching a “Preview Program” that will allow anybody to sign up and partake in software and, in some cases, hardware tests. Users who sign up and are invited to projects will have the responsibility of extensively using and providing feedback to HTC before a software or hardware is widely released.

It sounds like a fun and inviting way to get people involved, and maybe turn things around for the better for HTC. Often times it does feel like feedback on their smartphones go unnoticed (or like the M9’s camera, which was noticed a little too late). By addressing the issues before release they can hopefully avoid the lackadaisical launches by ensuring the best out-of-box experience they can give.

I sincerely hope that the program does well for the company. Some of my favorite smartphones have been HTC devices (with the M7 being one of my top favorites), and I’ve love to see the company have more "yays" than "nays" to talk about in the near future.

If you’re interested in joining HTC’s Preview Program, you can sign up here. You can also read their AMAA (ask me almost anything) on Reddit here.

What are your thoughts, reader? Do you hope that this will ultimately help HTC? Will you be signing up with the program? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!