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HTC’s mid-March release window for the HTC One M9 is about as accurate as you can get. The company has just announced the first official availability date for the device. It’ll go on sale beginning March 16th in their home turf of Taiwan in conjunction with 5 of the nation’s largest carriers.
According to local press, HTC held the initial launch in Taiwan so as to instill some Taiwanese pride among the hometown people excited to buy their phone. They drove that point home with traditional festivities such as drum performances and a performance by a local orchestra. This is in contrast to last year’s strategy of making United States’ Verizon Wireless the very first carrier to call dibs on the HTC One M8.
HTC mentioned that while the M9’s officially recognized launch date is March 16th, it wouldn’t start showing up on store shelves of local carriers until March 23rd. Whether an international or global launch will happen at that point remains to be seen (B&H once let loose a March 25th date for those of us in the States), but if the phone is primed for one market then it should be good to go in many more.
We’ll try to get a more pointed release date as it pertains to everyone not in Taiwan, so sit tight (unless, of course, you’ll be fortunate enough to be in the nation next week and buy one for yourself). In the meantime get a good look at what to expect from our hands-on time with the device from Mobile World Congress last week.
[via Digitimes]
Sounds like they are trying to beat Samsung’s S6 release, but they do not have enough stock for a big international release.
It could be a good play. I need a new phone, I like both, there is a chance if I get it in my hand in a store before the S6, I will jump. If there are 200k people like me across the USA, smart move on their part. Preemptive strike.
isnt this going to be released with 5.1?? still cant get this OTA on my N6….sideload time!
stop whinning. Nexus will receive 5.1 in the following days. Even if it takes a week or two, what’s the problem?
actually I edited it right as you posted this…. I was being sarcastic =)
I usually put a hashtag “#Sarcasm” to let people know I’m being sarcastic, because nowadays, people can’t tell and then fights happen. LoL!!
I guess I need to start goin there….I never thought I’d see the day where I’d have to hashtag sh*t just to tell you how I’m feeling #needtopoop
The problem is the Nexus program is like 93.75% hype about what it is, and what it really turns out to be in the wild.
so true. never again.
The factory images for 5.1 were up a couple days ago, and Phandroid posted the OTA files yesterday. Not sure what you’re whining about?
alright =)
Good strategy to push this out before S6 release because it’ll be a tough sell when both are available.
Depends. For my, the M9 has two huge advantages on the S6. Better camera and SD slot. And before anyone wants to be that guy, yes I have a dslr, but I still want an outstanding camera on a phone.
I agree with your second advantage, the microSD slot is super useful, but if you think the M9 will be a better camera than the S6, you’re mistaken. Unfortunately more megapixels does not necessarily mean better image quality, and a few review sites have already complained that the M9’s camera might not even be better than the M8’s 4 ultrapixel shooter. I was also looking forward to HTC making a phone with a decent camera (finally) to match their nice camera software, but it appears that that has not happened this generation of flagships.
Have they said anything about a developer edition? Or is it easy to unlock the bootloader on the carrier-unlocked versions (I haven’t owned an HTC phone, so I’m not sure how they do it)?
Bootloader unlocking for the M7 and M8 required you go through HTC and do this little automated process. It “voided” the warranty, but it was ridiculously easy to unlock the Bootloader. No coding experience required. Just be able to follow instructions. You’d have it unlocked within 5-10 minutes. Depending on how fast you got the unlock code in your email.
and thats no sarcasm
Thanks for the reply…
So do you need a developer edition model to get an unlock code, or will they give you one for any carrier-unlocked model? What about carrier versions?
You can unlock almost any HTC phone. When you goto the website to unlock the phone you have to go through a series of steps to get the unlock code and then apply it. Its pretty simple. No developer edition needed.
Thanks!
The M9 has a microSD card slot it seems. Provided you can put pictures, Video, and music on it, it’s very possible it’ll beat the S6 anyway. I love my S4, but I think Samsung is going to be in for a rude awakening trying to “out Apple” Apple.
Lol, I’d like to think Android users are smarter than ios sheeple, but unfortunately there are quite a few galaxy sheeple. Some don’t even know that a galaxy device is Android when they buy one. They also aren’t sure what Android is and think you me droid. So, even though the M9 seems to be the no brainer to me, many will still flock to the S6.
Lol yep, so many Samsung users calling their phones “Droids” They have no idea what theyre talking about. Galazy users are as bad as iPhone users. A device is advertised and people buy it like obedient sheep. Thats why i loved the HTC commercials with Gary Oldman, where he said that those that like to form their own opinions choose HTC. Hope they have as good or better advertising this year.
Legit. That Dot View 2 case is so lovely.
Im seriously trading in my Nexus 6 for this. So many problems with the Nexus, some hardware, some software. I dont know whether to blame Google or Motorolla. I knew I was taking a chance with a Moto Nexus, but i really wanted to enjoy a 5.9 inch screen, and the front facing speakers were very ONE M8 like. So i gave it a shot. Bad idea. This Motorolla crap cant even assign a ringtone to a contact correctly, crashed and never recovered the other day, got a new one in the mail, but it still is leaving a bad taste in my mouth. So i signed up for alerts from T-Mobile for when the M9 is coming out. Had an M8, sorry i gave it up for a Motorolla made Nexus. If i do try Nexus again it will only be an HTC Nexus.
I had a completely different experience..never go back to HTC..
So you had one bad experience with HTC and you won’t go back ? Silly. I had 5 HTC phones before this 1 Motorola phone. No problems till now. I’ll go with my experience , thanks.
The Nexus 6 only allows you to save contacts to Gmail or some other server you have to sync your contacts with which sucks. They should allow you to just save them to the smartphone alone. The HTC ONE M9 allows this.
Oh boy!! A youngin. That is NOT a Nexus only feature. In fact it is a typical Android feature. One of its best features. Syncing all your phone numbers and contacts with a gmail address is awesome. It is also saved to the phone itself. Are you new at this ? I’m talking about the software problems.
Ever stuck a phone up your ass for the sexual thrill? Neither have I.
Tried to buy this smartphone in Taipei today. No one had stock. They said they started taking orders today and not selling them. They said media was wrong. Sales start next week for those who laced orders today.
I tried out a demo HTC ONE M9 at the HTC shop here in Taipei today. Speakers are good but display has a bit of blueish/greenish tint to it which I did not like too much. The smartphone also has Facebook preinstalled and linked into Sense 7 which can not be uninstalled in the apps section of the setting on the phone. I did not like this for privacy reasons. HTC should have given us an uninstall option instead of just a Force Stop which does not do any good. The main 20 Mega Pixel camera is ok and just ok. Don’t expect much from the camera or you will be quite disappointed from it. Inside the shopping mall it had difficulty adjusting between areas that were light up and ones which were not so bright.
The other bad part that sucks is that Qualcomm 810 Chipset that they use can handle 20 LTE Bands but HTC only lets us use about 5-7 of them so if you travel often between Asia and America you are better off with an iPhone 6 where you can use it in most Asian countries and get 4G LTE and get 4G LTE in America on T-Mobile. Thanks for being stingy again HTC!!
I was right.. http://www.phonearena.com/news/Report-HTC-One-M9-Taiwan-launch-delayed-by-software-bug_id67267