Rob Kerr of mobile technology site Omio published an article this morning detailing discussions he had with HTC‘s Head of UK and Ireland, Phil Roberson, at Mobile World Congress last week. Roberson states quite clearly that HTC intends to release mid-range and low-end phones in 2013, packing as much of the technology and software from their flagship HTC One as they can.
It’s almost certain that every phone to come out of HTC’s labs this year will carry Sense 5 and Blinkfeed, but apparently HTC are looking at packing in the Ultrapixel camera as well.
Wherever the technology is possible, we’re looking to take as much of the technology and enrich all of our customers.
This seems a bit at-odds with what we’ve been hearing from HTC about their 2013 lineup – that the One is their “only” device – however it seems likely that they actually meant that the One is their only “high end” device. In 2012 HTC released a series of high-end devices under the “One” name, and a series of low-end and mid-range devices under the “Desire” name. It seems likely that this strategy may continue into 2013, although hopefully they’ll stick with one high-end device.
Obviously, some of HTC’s new features – such as Blinkfeed – don’t require new, expensive technology – HTC have already indicated that they’ll bring Sense 5 and as much of its trimmings as possible to older devices, such as the One X, so it’ll be interesting to see what features HTC will actually bring to their lower-end devices.
I can see the value of HTC bringing their newer innovative features to cheaper devices – after all, 4.7″ screens and $700 phones aren’t for everyone. However, I am concerned that HTC is going to again flood the market with similarly-specced handsets with confusing names, and I’m skeptical that any of these devices will see updates to future versions of Android.
Am I being too cynical? Would you buy a cheaper, ‘mini’ version of the HTC One? Let us know in the comments.
