Flagship smartphones tend to be what most people would consider premium devices, but that hasn’t stopped companies like Apple and Samsung from releasing even more premium versions of their premium handsets. Rumors have suggested that HTC wants to get in on the premiumly premium action as well and, seemingly confirming these rumors, the company claims to have an announcement that will convince you not to buy an iPhone.
HTC says it has a plan to tackle the high-end of the smartphone market. Over the last three years, HTC has consistently made some of the best smartphones you can buy. Its One series of flagship devices were the first to buck the trend of flimsy, plasticky devices in favor of premium-feeling metal phones. But even though they were really nice, HTC has struggled to sell them at a volume even close to what Apple and Samsung has been able to pull off. Part of that is a marketing problem. Samsung became king of Android a little over three years ago thanks to an aggressive ad campaign and PR push, leaving HTC in the dust. But things have changed recently. Samsung has seen sales and profits tumble as more manufacturers have figured out how to make really nice phones that cost a lot less. It’s the same story for HTC. The challenge ahead of the launch of its new phone, the HTC One M9, will be to figure out how to differentiate the device from the zillions of other Android phones and high-end devices like the iPhone.
