The HTC One will
arrive at Verizon months after it goes to other carriers, and Verizon won't
carry the Droid sub-brand. That won't matter much at all.
Verizon confirms plans to offer the HTC One "later this summer".
(Credit: CNET)
After months of rumored buzz about a Droid variant of HTC's One
flagship phone for Verizon, Big Red announced on Monday that it'll
soon sell the same One as rival providers. Without
providing any specifics, the carrier only acknowledges that the flagship
handset is on the horizon.
"We don't have anything to add beyond the tweet that said we were
offering the HTC One on our network by end of the summer," Verizon said to
CNET in an e-mail.
Even without the benefit of differentiating Droid branding, Verizon's HTC
One is very late to the party. HTC said it's already sold 5 million phone since its April launch.
What I want to know -- and what I'm sure you Android-watchers
want to know, too -- is why it took so long for Verizon to get the HTC One in
its lineup? It could be for any number of reasons ranging from rigorous device
testing or an all-too-crowded lineup, to component shortages, to Verizon just
taking time for HTC to convince.
I also wonder: will the upcoming release sell the same way for Verizon as
it does for other carriers? HTC seems to gain more from the announcement than
Verizon, since it gets the marquee device across all four national providers.
This is significant because only Apple and Samsung have been able to get
cross-carrier uniformity.
The HTC One presumably replaces the HTC Droid DNA that launched late last year.
Verizon had a leg up on the competition with the 5-inch DNA, but the handset
never achieved the level of success of other Droid models. Maybe a victim of
timing or of a crowded smartphone lineup, the DNA simply didn't live up to the
hype. Even at the ripe old age of 2 months, the HTC One should do better than
the 2012 model.
I might be seeing things that don't exist, but I also get the sense that
the Droid brand will slowly wane. More and more, handset-makers are releasing
flagship models with brand recognition. Looking at the rumors surrounding the Moto X one might expect the same to continue with
Motorola. Generally speaking, carriers win by selling their services and not
particular devices. Companies like HTC, LG, and Samsung are now spending
marketing money on building a brand.
With all of this in mind, I expect that Verizon's One will match the rest
on other carriers. In the end everyone wins, but at varying degrees. Verizon benefits
by selling one of the highest-rated smartphones on the planet. HTC wins because
it gets to continue building momentum around its handset and brand, and
customers can rejoice that they won't have to weigh the differences between a
specialized Droid phone and what every other carrier offers.
The HTC One is the One, plain and simple.(Source: cnet)
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