HTC One M9 Release Date Announced
The successor to the HTC One M8, appropriately — if uncreatively — named the HTC One M9, now has an official release date, according to an official press release as detailed by Digitimes in Taiwan. Gotta Be Mobile has details of the release, including HTC’s rolling release schedule for the One M9, which will start March 16 in Taiwan and will be available for sale from the five 4G carriers beginning March 23.
Worldwide release dates have not yet been confirmed, but American retailed B&H have listed the phone on their website for $649 USD and indicated that it will be available on March 25.
The HTC One M9, in HTC’s bid to keep abreast of major competitors Apple and Samsung, was unveiled alongside a fitness wearable and a virtual reality headset. Prices for these items are currently unknown, but the fitness band at least will likely be comparable to the FitBit. It will be available in both 32GB and 64GB varieties — at least in some markets. HTC has made higher-memory versions of their phones regionally-exclusive in the past and while it is known that the 64GB HTC One M9 will be released in Taiwan, no definite announcements have been made otherwise.
The phone’s design is basically the same as the M8, which may be for the best after the odd design choices made with the original HTC One (technically the HTC One M7, but marketed just as the HTC One). The phone does boast a wealth of features, and as the Inquisitr previously reported, the HTC One M9 and the recently-announced Samsung Galaxy S6 may be poised to finally topple the Apple iPhone’s throne; as of December, 2014, Apple held the top market share in the U.S. by only 0.1 percent against Android (although it’s worth noting that these numbers take into account all Android smartphones.)
As for the tech specs, Gotta Be Mobile says that the HTC One M9 will include a 20.7 megapixel camera and a blisteringly powerful Snapdragon 810 8-core processor alongside 3GB of RAM, as well as the expected Android 5.0.1 Lollipop operating system and HTC Sense UI 7 custom interface, and as Trusted Reviews notes, both the 32GB and 64GB versions of the M9 will include potential MicroSD memory expansion, unlike both of its rivals, the Galaxy S6 and iPhone 6, not to mention the line’s M7 progenitor.
Theoretically, across the globe, the HTC One M9 will be in stores almost two weeks before the Samsung Galaxy S6, which will hopefully help HTC further revive its smartphone sales, which were badly flagging in 2013. HTC has since recovered some ground, but it remains to be seen if they can truly regain their place in the smartphone market.
[Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images]
