HTC One: everything you need to know

The wait is finally over: starting now, you can purchase two leading Android smartphones, the HTC One and Samsung's Galaxy S4, each loaded with a stock version of Google's mobile operating system. Both "Google Play edition" unlocked GSM devices go on sale today, priced at $599 and $649 respectively. Initial orders will ship by July 9th according to Google. The Galaxy S4 and One Google Play editions are being sold alongside Google's existing line of Nexus products — flagship hardware meant to showcase Android the way its creators intended.

Today marks the first time these smartphones have been available stripped of their respective manufacturer "skins" — Sense in the case of HTC, and TouchWiz for Samsung. For end consumers, that means a user experience free of carrier bloatware and access to timely Android updates in the future. For a closer look at how these phones stack up when running identical software, check out our review.

HTC may follow Samsung's lead and produce a "Google Edition" of its latest flagship smartphone running stock Android. According to sources that spoke to Russell Holly at Geek, work on a version of the HTC One without its Sense software customizations is underway, with a US launch said to be "imminent." Holly previously leaked accurate information on the Galaxy S4 Google Edition ahead of its announcement at the I/O conference.

HTC's chief product officer Kouji Kodera told The Verge last year that the company is "very proud of HTC Sense," and would "like to continue shipping it on every device." However, Kodera was one of many employees to recently leave HTC, and earlier this year the company released the First smartphone with the option to run stock Android in Facebook Home's place.

The HTC One, the company's new flagship phone and would-be savior, will be available on AT&T starting on April 19th for $199.99. That's a good $50 less than was rumored yesterday, and it undercuts the Samsung Galaxy S4 which will launch on AT&T for $249.99. Despite some delays, it appears that HTC will beat the Galaxy S4 to market — AT&T pre-orders for Samsung's flagship start on April 16th. The phone will come in silver or black and in 32GB and 64GB capacities, the latter of which will cost $299.99. Of course, these prices all come with the requisite two-year contract attached. While we took some issue with the One's "ultrapixel" camera and battery life, it still looks to be one of the best all-around Android phones on the market — we'll see if this head start helps HTC claw back in its battle against Samsung.

Update: The HTC One is officially going on sale on April 19th at Sprint for $199.99 with a two-year contract, as well. As expected, it appears the 64GB model is exclusive to AT&T — Sprint will only be offering a 32GB model. Pre-orders start on April 5th, one day after they start on AT&T.

The HTC One will finally begin rolling out next week, at least in the UK, Germany and Taiwan. Buyers in Europe, North America and "most of" the Asia-Pacific can expect to see the device launch before the end of April, according to an update HTC provided today. HTC's new shipping timeframe comes just days after reports suggested component constraints were to blame for the handset's delay in getting to market. "HTC has had difficulty in securing adequate camera components as it is no longer a tier-one customer," is what one (anonymous) HTC executive told The Wall Street Journal. The company isn't acknowledging those rumors, but it would appear any such issues are being ironed out. Unfortunately, a late April US launch puts the One on a collision course with Samsung's Galaxy S4 — a device that's almost guaranteed to be an instant hit with consumers.

HTC One fans were disappointed to learn last week that the phone had been delayed to late March or early April. Now,The Wall Street Journal reports that the flagship meant to turn around HTC's performance is being hampered by its past defeats. "The company has a problem managing its component suppliers as it has changed its order forecasts drastically and frequently following last year's unexpected slump in shipments," says an unnamed executive. He and others blamed the One's delay on shortages, particularly of the metal casing and camera parts. "HTC has had difficulty in securing adequate camera components as it is no longer a tier-one customer."

Though the company released its flagship One X and DNA phones, as well as one of the first Windows Phone 8 handsets, in 2012, it hasn't been able to climb out of a slump that started in 2011. In the fourth quarter of 2012, it posted a meager $34.5 million in profit, compared to $133 million in the third quarter and $366 million in late 2011. While we were impressed with the new One, HTC appears to still be rebuilding an effective supply chain — and as it does, it's pushing dangerously close to the release window for Samsung's Galaxy S4.

HTC has confirmed that its flagship One phone will be shipping in late March and early April after reports of delays. Earlier today, UK retailer Clove reported that it would start selling the One two weeks later than expected: while the phone was initially set to arrive on March 15th, "We have today been advised officially by HTC that the UK launch date has been put back to the 29th March." Official launch dates have been hard to come by, but HTC said at the phone's announcement that a global rollout was planned in the latter half of March.

When asked about the delay, HTC admitted that the One wouldn't be shipping as expected in all regions, though O2 is shipping now in Germany. In a statement, it said "We will start fulfilling pre-orders by end [of] March in certain markets and will roll out to more markets as we approach April." It's a relatively small delay, but it does mean the launch will take place well after Samsung's anticipated Galaxy S 4 announcement on March 14th.

The Android market has changed radically in the past couple of years. Where we once had a spec war, with manufacturers racing to release ever-more powerful smartphones as quickly as possible, now it’s turning into a marketing battle — and Samsung is winning by a mile. HTC, by comparison, isn’t doing so well. The company has learned some important lessons about not flooding the market with iterative designs, and the culmination of that is the aptly-named HTC One. It’s HTC’s flagship, the one device it’s putting all its weight behind.

It might seem a little reductive to only consider the HTC One in comparison to Samsung’s as-yet unseen Galaxy S 4, but the truth is that the HTC One can only succeed if it can steal back some of the marketshare it lost last year when the One X, which we found superior to the Galaxy S III in many ways, failed to compete with Samsung’s device.

Clad in an all-black outfit and projecting his usual air of cool confidence, HTC CEO Peter Chou today introduced his company's big new hope for 2013, the HTC One. Amid the hubbub surrounding the London launch of his company's new Android flagship, Peter was kind enough to sit down with us for a fireside chat about HTC's struggles of the past year and how it hopes to correct them going forward.

Vlad Savov: What are the big lessons that you learned over the last year with the One X and the One S? Those represented a big change in design for HTC, as does the new One, what will be different about your approach this year?

HTC was once a dominant, if not the dominant, player in the smartphone industry. It began by manufacturing smartphones like the Palm Treo, entered the market with Windows Mobile devices, and created the first Android smartphone. Yet HTC’s early lead in the space has evaporated: Apple created the iPhone, Samsung has dominated the Android market, and the carriers — once HTC’s greatest allies — are less relevant than ever in creating consumer demand.

As a result, HTC’s last quarter saw it drop to its lowest profits since 2004 and the company is now barely hanging on to tenth place in global smartphone shipments, according to a recent Gartner report. All this happened despite the company’s stalwart attempts to reimagine itself with the One series last year. HTC is on the ropes and needs a win, badly.

HTC has just announced the One, a new flagship Android smartphone for 2013. The HTC One runs Android 4.1.2, but an update to the latest version, Android 4.2, is promised at some point in the future. It has a quad-core Snapdragon 600 running at 1.7GHz, 2GB of RAM, and 32GB of onboard storage. It's already been compared to its competition aesthetically — but how do those specs stack up against other flagship models?

At long last, and after a number of leaks, HTC has finally revealed its new One smartphone. The One is the company's latest flagship device, and it is designed to replace the multiple models that HTC released last year with a singular vision. HTC is putting all of its effort behind a single high-end device this year (hence the simple 'One' name), as opposed to its previous attempt to multiple devices with different characteristics. We got to spend a brief amount of time with the new phone and have come away mostly impressed and somewhat perplexed.