HTC Corp (宏達電) has unveiled the latest version of its One smartphone, touting its combination of sleek design combined with the latest Android software.
The HTC One A9 goes on sale globally early next month and offers an all-metal and glass design with smooth curves. In addition to the pervasive smartphone colors of gray, sliver and gold, it also comes in garnet red.
The phone is the first outside of Google Inc’s own Nexus line to feature that company’s Marshmallow software at launch. It is also the first regular-sized HTC handset to have a fingerprint sensor — a feature already standard on smartphones made my larger rivals Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co — that can make purchases using the Android Pay feature.
Photo: CNA
HTC chairwoman and chief executive officer Cher Wang (王雪紅) touted the potential of the One A9 in a letter to employees on Monday.
Wang promised the new smartphone would make HTC employees proud, as the phone “strikes a balance between beauty, performance and simplicity,” making it good enough to become an alternative choice for consumers to the iPhone, she wrote.
Technology news Web site The Verge said in a preliminary review of the One A9 on Tuesday that the 5-inch smartphone is “the most blatant and highest-profile iPhone rip-off since Samsung’s original Galaxy S.”
“There’s a lot of practicality embodied in HTC’s new hero device. The Taiwanese phone maker decided to copy the most popular smartphone out there, and it prioritized the US with its most appealing pricing and perks,” the report said.
HTC North Asia president Jack Tong (董俊良) yesterday denied that the design of the HTC One A9 had copied Apple’s iPhone, adding that the HTC model is a pioneer metal-clad design.
“We are not copying. We made a uni-body metal-clad phone in 2013. It is Apple that copies us in terms of the antenna design on the back,” Tong said at a media briefing at the Taiwan launch of the new phone.
“The A9 is made thinner and more lightweight than our previous metal-clad phones. This is an evolution, we are not copying,” he said.
HTC is to make a special SIM-unlocked version of the One A9 for the US market that is to allow users to unlock the bootloader without voiding their warranties, giving customers more freedom.
US pre-orders for silver and gray models are now being taken through HTC’s Web site for US$400. The other colors are to be available within weeks.
Despite the hype over its new smartphone, HTC shares fell 6.41 percent yesterday to close at NT$75.9 in Taipei trading.
The HTC One A9 is expected to lift revenue in the fourth quarter as vendors start stocking the product, but consumers will not necessarily follow, Sinopac Financial Holdings Co (永豐金控) analyst Calvin Huang (黃文堯) said.
“It might attract those who can’t afford the iPhone, but there are a lot of better phones as well on the market at cheaper prices,” Huang said. “The smartphone market is getting increasingly crowded. I don’t see any hope for a turnaround.”
KGI Securities Co (凱基證券) analyst Richard Ko (柯良蔚) agreed, saying the market is crowded with tonnes of products.
“Are the phone’s differences going to get people to choose it? That’s uncertain.” Ko said.
Additional reporting by AFP and CNA
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