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We’re just over a month away from Mobile World Congress where we expect some very big announcements to be made. One of the bigger stories to follow has been HTC’s M7. We’re almost 100% certain the device exists and that it is supposed to be announced next month, but a new wrench thrown into the rumor mill suggests we’ll be hearing official word about it sooner than we expected.
The event will supposedly take place February 19th, a full week and some change ahead of the goings-on in Barcelona, and folks believe HTC could take to London to do its bidding. Considering how CES went it’s not a long shot to suggest HTC will take this route.
Many big companies skipped CES in terms of big mobile announcements, a trend that is increasingly sweeping the wireless industry. Everyone wants their own stage and their own time to ensure no one else can steal their thunder. The HTC M7 is a big deal for the company during times where it’s seeing its lowest profit margins in years.
With profits slowly slipping away HTC has to do everything it can to roar back into the spotlight, and we don’t blame the Taiwanese OEM if it doesn’t want to share with anyone else. Either way, no one has received any save the dates or invitations so until HTC starts rolling those out we won’t know what to expect from its February schedule.
I bet their sales would improve if they stopped loading bloatware er I mean “sense” on their phones…
Just like Touchwiz failed Samsung’s sales? I don’t think so. Bet you’ve not run Sense lately – nothing personal, just saying.
Touchwiz doesn’t have the performance problems sense does. No, I admit I haven’t run it lately, I run Cyanogenmod. Being a CM person though, I see before/after stats of devices running sense, touchwiz, blur, etc running CM afterward. The differences are staggering. Now I know that HTC doesn’t make the speed tuning efforts to their stock Android images before applying their interface, so the numbers are a little skewed to begin with one could argue that Sammy and Moto don’t do that either. So the skew is well with in tolerance. The performance gain by installing CM over the existing ROM (on the same hardware) is much higher on HTC devices with sense than it is on Moto devices with blur or Samsung devices with touchwiz.
And for what it’s worth, the last time I did use sense, I found the whole experience laggy and sluggish, like my phone was trying to digest a Thanksgiving dinner. I’m not commenting at all on the UX it provides/lacks (that’s a personal opinion), simply the performance aspects of it over stock Android. In short, yes Dustin, I do know what I’m talking about.
I don’t think anyone will argue that stock android performs better than any other version running a custom UI. The problem here is that to mainstream customers, not someone like you who are in the extreme minority, a stock android device like a nexus simply looks boring. The average person don’t even know what aosp means, all they know is that gs3 with touchwiz and one x/evo lte with sense looks a lot cooler than the nexus sitting next to both of them. That’s why you will never see a nexus device selling anywhere near the same rate as a gs3 or other high end android devices.
Really? Google+ has a ton of people posting in communities and their streams that they wish their phone didn’t have sense on it. Some named it specifically, others just complained about their HTC phone looking cartoonish or feature X not being easily accessible (where feature X is an Android core feature, not an app).
I have to disagree (and I bet, so would Google) that a stock Android device simply looks boring compared to sense/touchwiz/whatever. Android 4.0 (and later)’s Holo UI is very artistic, very modern, and very elegant. Sony dropped their custom skin for stock Android recently because of this. A number of apps are using the Holo theme UI guidelines on Android’s developer website, which makes their app look similar to the system apps because of this. The UI is the UI is the UI, regardless of AOSP, official Google images (such as on a Nexus), or Android from a 3rd party OEM (such as Sony) unless you cover it up. So it doesn’t matter in the slightest that the average joe doesn’t know what AOSP is.
The reason that Nexus devices don’t sell well has NOTHING to do with the UI. I could write a dissertation on that if you’d like – they’re rarely subsidized, they aren’t carrier branded so they get no advertising, their only marketed in certain circles, etc – fix those problems, and you end up with the Nexus 4 which nobody can KEEP in stock.
You can argue that I’m in the extreme minority, and when it comes to benchmarks and things, yes, you’re right, but even a moron can appreciate a good interface. How many phones has Apple sold? *ducks* Seriously, though, Android’s 4.0+ interface is wonderful and doesn’t need to be “covered up” by skins that just add bloat and slow down the phone. That isn’t what customers want. If customers DO want the look of Sense or touchwiz/whatever, it shouldn’t be at the expense of a responsive phone. That’s the point I’m trying to make.
Dude, I am not arguing with you, as a matter of fact I agree with most of what you said but that still doesn’t change the fact that your average consumer doesn’t care about anything you just typed. You can right whatever dissertation if it will make you feel better but the facts are still the facts. I don’t care who says what on google+, that means absolutely nothing. The people that would prefer a stock android device are in the minority and it will continue to be that way for a very long time. Also you talk about lag, but when was the last time you used a device running sense or touchwiz? I have a nexus running cyanogen’s latest, I also have an evo lte running sense and my evo is just as responsive as my nexus. Most of my other friends are using gs3’s (rooted/stock) and their phones are just as responsive. My coworker just got a note 2 and it runs flawlessly. Also, out of the box, a sense/touchwiz device will offer quite a bit more features than a nexus device and thats what attracts customers.
Prob my next phone if it releases during Q1 or early Q2
Removable battery, SD slot, unlocked boot loader and make it widely available.
Unlocked boot loader WITH s-off.
Now that would be a dream come true, but probably not going to happen.
I would be happy enough only with the SD card slot option!
Cant wait. Hope its a top notch device and lands on TMobile.
2/19 is less than a month away…..
Ok…? I said Mobile World Congress is more than a month away, not this supposed HTC event.
So hyped! xD
Put this one feature on & watch it fly off the shelves w/everyone saying “SAMWHO?”:
KICKSTAND/BOTTLE-OPENER………….
uh, no. not everyone is an alcoholic, and if you want a kickstand, use a case that has one.
You’re absolutely right, ANDROID is all about choice, afterall.Throw some hemostats on that kickstand as well…….
What’s with that huge space below the capacitive buttons?
Tell you what I have run sense lately. 4.0 to be exact, and it was terrible. Not only was it very laggy and made the phone freeze constantly, its just ugly and cartoonish. To me anyways. Touchwiz also looks cartoonish to me, though I have not played with it enough to comment on performance.
when on earth are they going to use on screen nav buttons…they need to get with the bloody program for christ sake
if HTC don’t put a SD CARD in their phones it will really sucks
The new HTC M7 looks really great, but i hope, they change the name
Most likely there will be a new name. M7 is just a temporary code name.
It may be the name of a new series like One series.
Nice to have a choice of a flagship phone with a screen smaller than a massive 5″.
This times a thousand