There’s been some interesting developments for those waiting for the All New HTC One. However, there has been some even more recent rumors, that suggest not everyone will get to enjoy those developments at the same time. Verizon users rejoice, because you will be able to get the All New HTC One two weeks before anyone else, according to this latest rumor.
The first set of rumors, that we were all excited to hear, was that HTC planned to launch and release the All New HTC One on the same day. March 25th is that day, which is a few weeks ahead of the release for Samsung’s Galaxy S5. That was good news for HTC, make the phone available before the rest, and maybe lock a few more people into your device before they have the chance to get locked into another. The problem for a lot of users however, is that Verizon has apparently somehow managed to get exclusivity for two weeks.
This would be a big difference for Verizon compared to what happened last year with the original HTC One. At first, there was talk that Verizon may never get the HTC One, and as months passed by, that line of reasoning became more and more believable. Then – seemingly out of nowhere – Verizon launched the HTC One, but they may have been too late. All three major carriers, besides Verizon had the HTC One for months, so Verizon seemed to come late to the party. Now, for the release of the All New HTC One, Verizon seems to be making up for it, by gaining the exclusivity rights, making the device available at exactly 1 p.m. EDT on March 25th.
This could be either great news for you, if you are on Verizon, or upsetting news if you are on AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint or anyone else. Pricing is still unknown, all we have is rumors that off-contract, the device will be around $600. That price means we will more than likely see the regular $199.99 subsidized deal on US carriers.
Equality is not something that seems to be considered when it comes to device availability in the US. Deals are made, and it seems like Verizon is feeling the mistake they made just over a year ago with the launch of the HTC One. They don’t want to make the same mistake, instead, they want to screw over everyone who isn’t on their network by gaining exclusivity. Now this is a rumor, no confirmation at all, and should be taken as such. Especially since the weirdest part about this rumor, is AT&T and how they have the giveaway going. If you are not familiar with that giveaway, essentially it is One All New HTC One device a day for the five days leading up to the launch date.