By 
HTC has taken a lot of flak for the HTC One M9. It’s not a bad phone on its own, but the company did next to nothing different compared to yesteryear’s HTC One M8. Well, it wasn’t enough to get M8 owners to consider upgrading, anyway.
But the company says the iterative updates are about to go away. CEO Cher Wang confirmed to Focus Taiwan that HTC is planning to bring a fresh, innovative device for the next flagship M device (HTC One M10, anyone?). We’ll see new goods in areas of both design and technology. It will have been the biggest departure from HTC’s tried and true engineering since the original HTC One (M7).
Beyond that, the company is also planning to launch another hero device later this year, which seems to indicate that they’ve ditched their strategy of releasing just one sole flagship device each year. Then again, they’ve already shown us that they have no problems releasing multiple high-end smartphones, even when their launches come weeks apart.
HTC’s also conscious about their questionable marketing efforts, and says they have plans to step it up down the line. We’re not sure what they will do, but we sincerely hope it features a lot less Robert Downey Jr.
This was expected. The M9 may be a small upgrade to the M8, but it’s still one of the best out there.
The phone in a vacuum is fine, but I think compared to what the competition in the last 6 months (iPhone 6+, Note 4, S6, G4,etc.) I don’t know what they were thinking with such a small upgrade to the M9. It was unwise and that is why they’re essentially having to go back to the drawing board for next years device.
True, though there are still 2-3 elements about the M9 that neither of those phones can’t beat. Boom Sound is still leaps and bounds the best speaker experience, Sense (IMO) is still the cleanest and fastest Android overlay, and their build quality is still better than any other phone I’ve seen.
I switched from M7 to Z3. Sony’s Lollipop implementation is really fast and clean – no complaints. The speakers are a pretty close second to Boomsound as well. Good enough for my ears, anyway.
Fair argument, I like Sony phones as well.
And yet Sony is struggling in the mobile phone market. It’s a lot to do with image, not just specs.
I don’t disagree, but every year you have to up your game. Apple took the iPhone and made it bigger, put a better camera on it, implemented a payment system due to hardware. Samsung improved the camera, improved the build quality, sped the phone up, built in wireless charging, improved the screen quality, etc.
Htc didn’t improve anything in a big way like their main competitors did. You can argue HTC was ahead previously in some ways, but they released a device that was fit for two years ago versus the devices of the last year. They knew what they needed to fix and they didn’t do it.
Htc M7 was the M8 which also is M9. All in all Htc will always be a sad joke on the android platform yearly.
Yeah, tell me again how greatly the difference was from the S1 to the S5?
You poor comical loser it really hurts you living in a insignificant world. I’m enjoying your pitiful life it makes me happy to know your miserable
Keep those pitiful little childish insults coming. The more you say them, the more you look like the fool. You can’t even make 1 single argument based in fact. All you’ve ever done is throw around these ridiculously juvenile insults that only bratty little 8 year olds know how to do best. Grow up old man.
It will be made of titanium with tungsten screws, finger print scanner, 3 cameras on the front and four on the back. It will have a built in wing flap along with 2 processors (one Snapdragon and one mediatek) 6 GB of RAM and a Octa HD 5.5 inch screen.
Dude, really? That is just ridiculous.. it’s 16GB RAM. :)
It was also ridiculous.. It’s 160GB RAM :)
The 1TB of storage is a given…………… ;-)
All kidding aside,I wouldn’t mind seeing an antenna for FM radio,as is offered in other countries.
The fm antennas actually exist in almost smartphones they just deactivate them in the u.s. to push data sales, npr and a group of radio stations are actually sueing to have them enabled, on the basis that fm is necessary for emergency situations when cell towers could be down or overloaded, plus they tested and found streaming npr/radio vs. Listening on fm uses an absurd amount more electricity and wastes crucial bandwidth
All cell phones released in the US and many other countries require the use of a headset for the antenna. You’re thinking about the cases where they cut the circuit elsewhere.
It will also have a built-in douche-o-meter so you can find out if people you meet are actually genuine or just terrible.
So by them announcing this expect sales of the current M9 is drop.
They should be talking about that camera and them bezels being different especially lol
I really hope they don’t change the device too much. I love the M7/M8.
If they made a an M7 with the Nexus 6 screen size and (obviously) flagship hardware, I’d buy it in a heartbeat. Same design and all. I liked it then, I like it now. Screw the “gotta change everything every year” crowd. They can buy a Samsung.
Htc one Max. It didn’t do too well unfortunately
…and it had a button on the front ala Apple/Samsung, if I recall. Ick. Doubt he’d want that one.
Make it really different, use Windows 10 this time
“We believe in you! Go dude go! you got this” -sincerely RIM
I just hope it’s not 2013 all over again, the M7, best potential phone that yr but suffered 3 things it did not have to. 1. Lack luster battery, 2. poor camera that kept putting some purplish tent over the pics, 3. No Micro So card…. That was an easy fix the M8 could have been an M7+ I really loved the look of the M7 over the M8
M7 charging time was way too slow as well. This compounded the small battery problem. My biggest irritant by far.
If you send the m7 in to htc, they will replace the camera unit. In low light, it still takes better photos than the iPhone 6, thanks to ois and pixel size. (I have both). But the battery life is definitely unfortunate.
I know all about its night abilities, but what about day time and with a little distance. That’s what I meant. But I don’t own the M7 anymore, I replaced it with the M8
Honestly, I feel that curved screens are the way to go now. Samsung is going to keep investing in this, each iteration of their flagships having more and more of a curve to them. The phones will look sicker and sicker and maybe the curved screens are substantial enough where a decent amount of functionality is added to them software wise.
I am really rooting for HTC, they are a great company with great taste and i just love having them around. All for the sake of competition
Curved screens are a gimmick, which serves no other function than to have people go “oh wow, that looks cool!”.
It does look really good but I can’t even justify spending $700 on a phone right now, let alone the upcharge for the Edge phones.
Here is a start for HTC: 64 bit Snapdragon 820, 128GB memory, 4 or 8 GB RAM, removable battery, SD slot, 5.2 inch 4K screen, no bezel, boomsound with no black bar, and 2 year update support.
4K screen is absolutely retarded at that size.
yea the droid turbo and galaxy s6 made a mistake
No need to be a hater of high tech. 1080p was good couple of years ago. Time to get more serious for the display.
No need. Give me the extra battery life that comes with 1080p. No interest in higher res in a sub 6″ device.
Realize Netflix still maxes out resolution set 480p on smartphones and YouTube will go higher2k but you have to always force it, it always defaults to a way lower speed initially on even the fastest connection
They do that, I’ll be back with HTC with the M10. It was not a smart move from HTC to remove the removable battery. There was no need to convert Apple fans, it’s like to try to explain to liberals how economy works, they’re clueless like in Seattle and LA to increase the 15$ minimum wage. ?
8 Gb of ram in a phone? What for?
I’m pretty sure they can comeback with something nice next year. Anything that comes out this year was already in the making. They don’t just make phones overnight and push them out. Anything else right now is just what was already in the pipeline.
HTC EVO 5D! That’s right, FIVE D!
So, in terms of design and implementation, would the phone be more harebrained or less harebrained?
I just hope their version of “fresh & innovative” isn’t the same as what Samsung had in mind for the “new & innovative” S6…
They already announced that they are not renewing the Downey contract and are discharging some of their advertising teams. There’s no question their design team is excellent — it’s the folks engaged in the rest of the supply chain that need a swift kick in the butt.
We’ve been saying it since the M8 (and even M7), but HTC literally has TWO things they need to change in order to make the One M10(?) a hit:
1) Top-quality camera that rivals that of the iPhone 6+/Galaxy S6/LG G4 (start by using a friggin’ Sony sensor like everyone else!)
2) Increase the screen:body ratio (aka. find a way to rearrange the internals so that you don’t have the useless “black HTC bar”, shrink the size of the speaker grills à la the Xperia Z3)
Maybe it’s also time for a name change. Maybe call it the HTC Two? Or Mark II? Something to shed the “One” moniker because it’s getting tired.
This is the sort of “crazy” thinking that they need. I just question if this new CEO sees it as well.
I’d add more battery capacity to the list. That, plus the slow charge time was the most irritating part of my M7. Having switched to the Z3, I can never go back to a device with worse battery performance. 2 days of moderate use, or 1 – 1.5 of heavy is a revelation.
I always say this but I wish they’d get the rights to the “EVO” name from Sprint and use it for themselves, still my favorite name for a phone to this pint.
Just make the camera not suck and you would have sold a lot more m9s. s6/iphone6/g4 are in a completely different league. Sucks I thought this year finally i would switch off samsung to another brand. NOPE. upgraded to s6 from s4, from galaxy nexus. Sammy cant be beat. Hate saying it.
How hard is it for these companies to focus? Apple showed the way, all you have to do is just emulate that. Focus on one damn phone! Argh.
It’s hard to expect success when you release a phone with camera that’s inferior to all the other flagships. First HTC wanted us to believe the UltraPixels are the way to go and then, in 2015, they give us 20 MP device, withous OIS and with F2.2 aperture while the competition released devices with OIS and F1.8/1.9.
My observation with HTC is that, it seems at times they try to skimp on some specs and features…then do their best to talk it up. But those who consume their devices are not stupid. This none sense is costing them fans.
Majority of phone buyers will not know what OIS or an f/1.8 aperture is so I doubt that’s why someone will lose sales.
HTCs marketing is poor in respect to the others (Apple, Samsung) that’s the only reason why.
Ps the ultra pixel thing was definitely silly though!
I agree with you that we the geeks are not where companies make money on, it’s the masses. But some people read reviews, comparisons, they ask in the store what phone has good camera etc. I have read somewhere that the camera is one of the most often used phone feature so you can’t expect to success when you release phone with such crap that was put into the M9.
As for the UltraPixels: it would be good with 8-12 MP resolution but it’s not currently possible. I think Apple does a good job keeping the res @8MP and maintaining 1.5 micron pixels. LG and Samsung went for 16 MP but equipped their devices with OIS and F1.8/1.9 to compensate for smaller sensor that could affect the low light performance. And what HTC did? Put 20 MP with F2.2 and no OIS.
I doubt the larger aperture (this is not always a plus by the way) and image stabilisation would help HTC get more sales. I think marketing is a much bigger factor.
Ask any random Joe what an android phone is and they’ll say a galaxy. And I think that’s a shame.
II don’t care how good the hardware is, android has to fix the fragmentation issue. HTC does a good job updating, but still too darn slow due to issues in android itself. It’s hurting every android manufacturer there is on the market. Time to have two layers where third party can build upon a underlying foundation that can receive updates directly from google to keep devices up to date.
I think OEMs are to blame, with all their myriad of skins) on top of pure Android.
Definitely.
I’ve been happy with Sony’s update speeds but will get a nexus phone next I think.
I’ll miss the stereo speakers.
They should release the M10 this fall…..forget the M9 ever existed!