A new in-depth video of HTC's forthcoming flagship smartphone, which may be dubbed either the All New One or just simply the One, has surfaced just a day before the device is set to be officially announced at media events Tuesday in London and New York City.
The 15-minute video, posted on YouTube by VidxHD, extensively shows off the design and features of the phone. However, it is just the latest in a stream of leaks, that, whether intentional or not on HTC's part, have revealed almost every aspect of the device before its official launch.
According to various leaks, the device, which is a follow-up to HTC's One from 2013, will sport a Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) Snapdragon 800 or 805 processor, a 5-inch screen, 3 GB of RAM and 16 or 32 GB of onboard storage with expandable microSD memory for up to 128 GB. Additionally, leaks have indicated that the phone will have a so-called "Duo Camera," which puts together images from two separate captures for advanced editing features, according to TechCrunch.
Meanwhile, another rumor from HTC Source indicates that Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ) will have a two-week U.S. exclusive on the phone before it's available from other carriers. That would be somewhat ironic since it took Verizon months to launch the One in 2013 after other U.S. carriers.
Whatever the final specs or carrier deals, HTC needs the new One to be a major sales hit in ways that the One from 2013 was not. Last year's flagship was lauded by critics and tech journalists but the phone and its variants did little to revive HTC's sales, which continued to slump throughout last year.
Once again, HTC is going to be competing against Samsung Electronics, whose new flagship, the Galaxy S5, goes on sale in April. According to the New York Times, Samsung spent $14 billion on advertising last year; HTC will only have a fraction of that amount for marketing.
"The most important thing is communication, and we didn't communicate with our end users well last year," HTC Chairwoman Cher Wang acknowledged in an interview last week with the Times. "We're going to do it better this year."
It's unclear how much of that marketing effort will include actor Robert Downey Jr., who HTC signed to a multimillion-dollar deal last year to be its spokesman. The Downey-featured ads that debuted late last year did little to shift smartphones for HTC.
Wang told the Times HTC can still be a competitor, even against Samsung's marketing firepower. She pointed to the electric car maker Tesla, which is small but generates a lot of attention. However, Tesla is a distinctly niche player in the larger auto market.
For more:
- see this TechCrunch article
- see this New York Times article
- see this CNET article
- see this NDTV Gadgets post
- see this HTC Source post
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