HTC thinks copying the iPhone will help make it successful again

HTC needs to release a successful smartphone really soon if it wants to boost its sales and reverse its seemingly endless losses, and what better way to do that than to copy the world’s most successful smartphone maker: Apple? The Taiwanese company has pretty much given up on creativity and originality at this point in a desperate attempt to mimic successful companies and turn things around for itself, and nowhere is this more apparent than with the HTC One A9. Rumors of the device have been popping up for months, and now that we have our first leaked images of the device, it’s clear that this is the HTC equivalent of an iPhone. 

Yet another leak has shown up of the rumored HTC One ‘Aero’, also known as the One A9. Although it’s shown up a few times in the past, never has it been clearer as to where the design influences have come from. HTC is expected to officially unveil the smartphone during a virtual event on October 20. Today’s leak comes via Steve Hemmerstoffer (aka @OnLeaks) and shows the extent to which HTC has gone to be ‘inspired’ by the iPhone 6/6s. Previously, we’ve seen the device in six color variants, and this seems to be the ‘carbon gray’ (read: Space Gray) version of the smartphone. As we’ve seen before, the phone has an all-metal body with antenna bands running along the top and the bottom on the rear panel. The metal is slightly curved around the edges, while the four corners are rounded, presumably to give it a more comfortable feel in hand and a more ‘friendly’ appearance. On the right edge, there’s a long volume rocker sitting above a heavily textured power button, while on the other side there are two removable, metal trays: one for a microSD card, the other for a SIM card. The bottom edge, much like the iPhone 6/6s, features a handful of machined holes for the speaker, a 3.5mm jack and the microphone as well as a non-centered Micro USB port. Also like the iPhone, the rear camera is housed in a slightly protruding metal ring on the back.