Taiwan-based HTC has long been the manufacturer-of-choice for PDAs and smartphones. They are known not only for their high-quality devices, but also for their creative vision.

It’s the latter that may be at risk with the latest news from HTC about Horace Luke, their Chief Innovation Officer:

“We are grateful for Horace’s many contributions to HTC and wish him well in his future endeavors. Scott Croyle, HTC’s vice president of design, has taken over Horace’s responsibilities and will continue a tradition of design innovation at HTC.”

HTC wooed Luke from Microsoft in 2006 where he served as their Creative Director at Microsoft. All told he’d been with Microsoft for nine years where he worked in the creative departments for Xbox, Windows XP, Microsoft Research, and Windows Mobile.

We’re unsure how this will impact the future of HTC, but we hope that Mr. Croyle has been groomed to fill Mr. Luke’s shoes.

Source: BGR