Following the announcement and subsequent delay of the HTC One from its originally intended March 15th date to April due to component shortages, HTC has gone ahead and announced a US-exclusive Developer Edition of the HTC One flagship with an unlocked SIM slot and unlocked bootloader for Android development. The phone features the following specifications:
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 processor
- 2 GB RAM
- 64 GB of storage
- SIM and bootloader unlocked
- Open APIs for Bluetooth Low Energy, Infrared, and more
- Front-facing stereo speakers
- Two dual-membrane microphones for recording
- Multiple frequency compatibility:
- HSPA/WCDMA: 850/1900/2100 MHz
- GSM/GPRS/EDGE: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
- LTE: 700/850/AWS/1900 MHz (US)
The phone will be sold for $649 in limited quantities, though no release date was given other than launching with the US carrier versions of the phone which are expected to begin in late April, though the delay of the European version due to component shortages may push the US release out even further. HTC needs the One flagship to succeed in terms of marketshare and unit sales, as the company continues to post losses in the hundreds of millions of dollars owing to a lack of marketing and differentiation from other manufacturers.
In fact, so great are the losses that it has registered for the past few quarters that one of its legal adversaries in Immersion Corp has requested its current patent litigation be moved from the International Trade Commission court to US District Court because it does not believe that HTC makes enough revenue to make a device blockade worthwhile and is instead seeking direct compensation through district court.
