HTC One: Same name, but a different device, inside and out

HTC took the wraps off its new One flagship phone today at a press event in New York. 

|
Reuters
HTC CEO Peter Chou shows off the new HTC One phone during a launch event in New York, March 25, 2014.

On Tuesday morning, at a press conference in New York, HTC introduced its latest flagship phone, a high-powered device dubbed the HTC One. Lest there be any confusion, yes, the last HTC flagship was also known as the One. (HTC seems to be following the strategy employed by Apple, which before the iPad Air started referring to its full-sized tablets simply as iPads, without all the numbers after the title.) 

But this isn't the same phone. The 2014 One comes equipped with a 5-inch HD display, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor, the Android 4.4 KitKat operating system, and the Duo Camera – a dual-lens job that HTC says will result in sharper, more dynamic photographs. Over the Android OS, HTC has layered its in-house HTC Sense user interface

"Android users know that every phone maker tends to customize the experience, generally with unnecessary features and ill-conceived design changes," Joanna Stern of the Wall Street Journal writes in a hands-on review. "HTC's Sense software is one of the least offensive. If Samsung's loud color palette is like a trip to the circus, HTC's more elegant design is a ballet." 

The One launches this week in the States; prices start at $199, with a two-year contract. Of course, as we've noted, no matter how positive the reviews for the previous HTC One – and they were very positive – HTC has had trouble keeping pace with rivals Samsung and Apple. 

Over at CNET, Roger Cheng notes that at least part of the issue may lie in HTC's marketing budget, which last year was $75.8 million – far less than the $350 million-plus spent by both Samsung and Apple during the same time period. "They really need to raise their awareness in the marketplace," Maribel Lopez, an analyst at Lopez Research, told Mr. Cheng in an interview, referring to HTC. "They're nowhere to be found in certain markets."

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to HTC One: Same name, but a different device, inside and out
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Technology/2014/0325/HTC-One-Same-name-but-a-different-device-inside-and-out
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe