Remember last year at Mobile World Congress when HTC told us that they were only going to have one flagship device, The One X, only to bastardize the name with confusing variants just a few months later? Well here we are at the same trade show and they are making the very same promise, only this year they really REALLY mean it.
In an interview with Omio, the top dog at HTC UK Phil Roberson said in no uncertain terms that there will be just “One” device:
Phil Roberson stated, in response to our question – “HTC One is the flagship device” “Last year we had the X and the S, where people had different personal preferences between the two” “We just said, let’s just create one flagship device for this year” We then reiterated the initial question for final confirmation: “So, there won’t be any more HTCsomething’s this year?” Roberson replied – “No; this is The One”.
This is great news since it shows that HTC is finally following the proven model that Samsung has been using with their Galaxy S and Note lines. The marketing from Samsung has gotten so good that they have Google worried the company might be getting too big for their britches. Samsung even got the carriers to buckle and allow them to keep the Galaxy S III name as is. This is something that HTC is hoping to accomplish by this announcement.
So far though the Taiwanese manufacturer is off to a good start with this years One. The handset will be on the most of the major carriers here in the United States other than the the biggest, which is obviously Verizon. That’s a Mexican standoff that we should all be watching. Odds are that Big Red wants to put “Droid” on their version should they get one and I doubt that I’m the only one who thinks that HTC should stand their ground. If Verizon names the “One” something else to suit their needs, then it takes away all potential marketing for HTC because most people would just call it a droid. There are still a lot of people that call ANY Android phone a Droid because of those Verizon commercials. We’re actually seeing the phenomenon to a lesser extend lately with the Galaxy name being used by people to describe whatever Android smartphone they may have whether it’s a Samsung device or not.
With the naming conventions that manufacturers have been using so all over the place, it’s nice to see a company like HTC taking this step. Even though it’s an obvious move it’s something that’s a long time coming. We just need HTC to stick to their promise this time around.