The HTC One M9 has stiff competition on April 10.Andrew Hoyle/CNET
April 10 is shaping up to be a busy day for smartwatch and smartphone fans.
HTC said Thursday that its latest premium smartphone, the HTC One M9, will land in carrier and retail stores on April 10. That's the same day that Samsung plans to release its Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge and that Apple opens up its Apple Watch for preorders and in-store fittings.
But the Taiwan-based phone maker will also get something of a head-start. HTC also said that on March 27 it plans to sell an unlocked version of the One M9 for $649, with the option of a 12-month interest-free financing option. It will go on sale Friday starting 12:01 a.m. ET.
HTC is in a fight for relevancy with its latest smartphone. Like its predecessor, the One M9 has been praised for its look and its use of metal rather than plastic, although critics say the design doesn't differ enough from the M8 and that the quality of the camera lags behind the competition. The One M9's launch comes at the same time that Samsung has stepped up the build quality of its latest flagship smartphone, and when Apple's iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are continuing to perform well.
And HTC is hardly operating from a position of market or mind share strength compared to the juggernauts of Apple and Samsung. In 2014, it held just 1.6 percent of the global market -- and that's a slip from 2.2 percent the year before and a peak of 8.8 percent in 2011, according to IDC. That didn't help HTC's financial picture, but the company has shown signs of recovery over the last two quarters as its revenue and profits have stabilized.
The company also has to adapt to a change in its top leadership. Last week, Chairwoman Cher Wang took over the CEO job from long-time chief Peter Chou, who shifts to a role helping with the development of new products. In recent months, it has been working to diversify its business with a range of gadgets such as the HTC Re camera, HTC Grip fitness band and HTC Vive virtual-reality headset.
US customers get a sweet deal with HTC's "Uh Oh Protection" program, which allows buyers to request a free replacement in the first 12 months, no questions asked. It's part of the company's push to create the perception that HTC is a luxury brand, although it's unclear how many people will be swayed by the offer.
AT&T customers can preorder the phone at 12:01 a.m. ET tomorrow. The HTC One will sell for $200 with a two-year contract, $709 without a contract, $23.64 a month under the AT&T Next 24 monthly installment plan, $29.55 a month under the Next 18 plan and $35.45 a month under the Next 12 plan.
T-Mobile will sell the One M9 for no-money down and $27.08 a month for 24 months. Customers can order the smartphone from T-Mobile's website starting tomorrow at 6 a.m. PT.
HTC said the One M9 will come to Verizon Wireless and Sprint, but that the carriers would release their own pricing later.
From CNET HTC Chairwoman Cher Wang now runs the company as CEO.Andrew Hoyle/CNET
HTC is hoping a shake-up at the top will reinvigorate its fortunes.
The Taiwanese smartphone manufacturer on Friday said that its co-founder and chairwoman, Cher Wang, would replace long-time leader Peter Chou as CEO, effective immediately. Chou will remain with the company in a new role helping with the development of new products.
The move comes as HTC -- a former heavy hitter in smartphones that has suffered through three years of sales declines -- pins its comeback on the new One M9 smartphone and a range of quirky gadgets such as the HTC Re camera, HTC Grip fitness band and HTC Vive virtual-reality headset, part of abroader attempt to diversify its business. Chou presided over the rise of HTC as a consumer brand, but hasn't been able to keep up with the marketing might of rivals Apple and Samsung.
"There have been question marks about Peter Chou's role as CEO" since 2013, said industry analyst Ben Wood of CCS Insight. "Peter has undoubtedly been the driving force behind HTC, but recently the company appears to have lost its way."
Today's reshuffle completes a shift that's been in motion since 2013, when the company's ailing fortunes prompted Chou to hand over elements of the day-to-day business to Wang. "I took on too many things,"Chou admitted in an interview at the time. "I need to be more focused on innovation and [the] product portfolio."
Over the last year, Chou, who has always been fixated on the design aspects of the business, has increasingly spent time overseeing the parts of the HTC focused on new products. That includes the software-focused Creative Labs division, Advanced Concepts, a team led by Claude Zellweger, whose main responsibility is coming up with new product categories, and Connected Devices, a group led by Chou tasked with bringing the new ideas to market.
"In his new executive role as head of the HTC Future Development Lab, Mr Chou will be instrumental in identifying future growth opportunities for the Company," Wang said in a statement.
As one of the rare successful female entrepreneurs in tech, Wang herself is a high-profile figure in Taiwan -- Taiwanese media have been known to take photos with her after press events.
That reign was brief. Samsung's something-for-everyone Galaxy range and a marketing budget that HTC simply couldn't match propelled the Korean company into the top spot, and HTC dropped to just 4 percent of the worldwide market. The company confusingly boughtheadphonemaker Beats Electronics, only to sell it two years later before Apple stepped in and splashed out billions of dollars on the popular brand. A3D phoneandphones with dedicated Facebook buttonsdidn't pan out, and 2013'sHTC First-- the official "Facebook phone" -- was a high-profile failure.Burma-born Chou co-founded HTC in Taiwan with Wang and H.T. Cho in 1997. The company once known as High-Tech Computers was at the forefront of Android's success: HTC was responsible for the first phone running Google's mobile software, the HTC Dream, known as the G1 in the United States; the first Google Nexus phone, the Nexus One; and the first 4G phone to go on sale in the US, Sprint's Evo 4G. By 2011,HTC was the biggest smartphone manufacturer in the US with 24 per cent market share, ahead of Samsung and Apple.
HTC simplified its confusing range of phones with the HTC One and One M8, but critical acclaim didn't translate into sales. The company has shown signs of recovery over the last two quarters as its revenue and profits stabilized. The company is set to launch the One M9 flagship product in the coming weeks.
Still, HTC faces an uphill climb as it looks to regain some of its presence in the smartphone world. Samsung Electronics has a radically redesigned flagship smartphone in the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge, which go on sale on April 10. Apple's iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, which launched in September, continue to dominate the premium segment, which is where HTC hopes to stay relevant.
"It remains to be seen whether Cher Wang is the right person to get HTC back on track," Wood said. "HTC has a very tough year ahead."
HTC co-founder Peter Chou will remain with the company exploring new products.Andrew Hoyle/CNET
The HTC One M9 takes an evolutionary approach with only minor tweaks to the body.Andrew Hoyle/CNET
BARCELONA -- HTC formally embarked on its mission to transform itself after unveiling not only a new smartphone, but also a fitness tracker and virtual reality headset.
The trio of products highlights the company's desire to move beyond smartphones, following in the footsteps of larger competitors such as Samsung that boast a wider portfolio of gadgets for consumers. But HTC is expanding in its own way -- preferring to partner with Under Armour for the Grip fitness tracker and Valve for the gaming headset Vive.
The two products come after HTC unveiled the HTC One M9, an updated version of its flagship smartphone with minor tweaks to the body and new software enhancements.
HTC's announcement comes on a Sunday chock full of news from the likes of Nokia, LG, Huawei and others. Samsung is expected to unveil its next Galaxy S smartphone at an event later this evening, a day before the Mobile World Congress trade show officially kicks off here.
HTC's event was of particular importance because its press conference was its chance to reinvent itself as a broader personal technology company. There's a lot at stake with this gamble. Succeeding with a new product means another source of revenue and a fresh direction. Failure, however, could mean it gets stuck in the increasingly competitive smartphone business, one dominated by heavy hitters like Apple.
"It's a new act of our opera," said HTC Chairwoman Cher Wang, referring back to her oft-used analogy of HTC's symphonic blend of design, hardware and software. "'Utopia in Progress (the name of the event) represents the next step of how tech will touch every aspect of our world and ehance how we experience it."
There's good reason HTC is look beyond its comfort zone: the smartphone game has been particularly tough for HTC. The fourth-largest smartphone maker in the world in 2012, the company has fallen off the radar and is categorized in the "other" category of companies that no longer merit individual mention, according to IDC.
The desire to transform comes from recognizing that the growth in smartphones isn't what it once was. Beyond Apple at the high end, there is fierce competition in the affordable smartphone segment between hot local start-ups like China's Xiaomi or India's Micromax, and other rivals like Lenovo's Motorola, Huawei and ZTE.
"Showing u still got it when it comes to innovation is essential to the brand," said Carolina Milanesi, an analyst at Kantar WorldPanel. "If they balance the financial side of the investment well, it might just work."
Still, HTC is nowhere near abandoning the smartphone business, and its One M9 took center stage on Sunday.
M9: Subtle improvements under the hood
While the previous year's One M8 stretched the amount of metal incasing the smartphone, the M9 saw only minor tweaks and improvements. The shape of the back is altered for a better grip, and the polished edges are gone. But the M9, especially in the gunmetal grey color, looks essentially like the M8.
That will make it a hard sell for a company whose defining attribute is its design acumen and attention to aesthetics.
The company said that it opted to keep what was working and refine some of the problem areas for M9. One issue is the reputation for a weak camera. The original HTC One and M8 both used an "Ultrapixel" camera that it argued let in more light for clearer photos. But the camera was critically panned and consumers didn't understand why the phone only had 4 Ultrapixels. For the M9, the company utilized a more standard 20-megapixel shooter.
HTC also added a 2,840 mAh battery to the M9, representing a slight improvement over the 2,600 mAh battery in the M8.
More of the improvements come in its Sense 7 user interface, which includes new ways to customize themes and a home screen widget that gives you a collection of specific apps depending on whether you're at home, at work or on the go. The widget automatically chooses your collection based on the phone's location.
"With only slight changes to the overall design and some tweaks to the specs, the HTC One M9 isn't the mobile revolution some may have been hoping for," said CNET editor Andrew Hoyle. "It is building on an already stunning phone, though -- one that we were extremely keen on -- and completely overhauling an already good product isn't always the right decision."
HTC says it's the third generation of its "iconic design" and believes it has stepped up the quality of the build. "M9 makes a statement: You demand the very best," said Drew Bamford, head of the Creative Labs unit for HTC and responsible for the software on the phone.
Targeting athletes with Grip
After HTC identified fitness as an area that it wanted to get into, the company began talking with Under Armour in February. What started as a conversation about a licensing deal -- HTC would build a product and Under Armour would slap its name on it -- evolved into a deeper partnership in which both companies would collaborate more closely.
The HTC Grip was built in cooperation with Under Armour.Ben Fox Rubin/CNET
Grip, which represents HTC's second connected product following the October unveiling of its Re camera, was already in HTC's pipeline when the two companies began talking. But HTC worked with Under Armour to make sure the product was integrated into UA Record, the fitness company's digital health and fitness network, which boasts more than 50 million users.
HTC and Under Armour aren't going after more casual consumers who tend to use activity trackers like a FitBit or Jawbone. Instead, it wants to target serious athletes who have a deeper investment in their fitness and exercise regimen.
"I'm not saying it's for everyone," said Robin Thurston, head of Under Armour's digital fitness business. "It's for a specific part of the market."
The Grip has basic smartphone notifications and can control the music on your phone through a Bluetooth connection. It also has GPS capabilities, which would appeal to more serious runners or cyclists. It has a small touchscreen display that allows you to swipe across and up and down to navigate.
Jeff Gattis, head of marketing for HTC's connected devices business, said the Grip allows the company to get into retailers that it traditionally hasn't been able to tap, including the sporting goods stores.
More importantly for HTC, the Grip doesn't represent a one-off product. "Our goal is to be extremely optimized with them as a partner," Thurston said.
Like, Gattis said HTC and Under Armour plan on creating more devices together.
HTC jumps into virtual reality world
HTC's investment into virtual reality, illustrated by its first prototype dev kit headset, called the HTC Vive, created in partnership with video game developer and digital distributor Valve, was sparked by a belief that the category represents the future of entertainment.
The Vive marks HTC's first foray into virtual reality and gaming.HTC
"This is a long-term commitment, like mobile phones 10 years ago," said Claude Zellweger, who is in charge of coming up with new product concepts for HTC.
Like with Under Armour, HTC was looking for a big name partner in gaming and sought to work with Valve. "It has the highest street cred among game producers," Zellweger said.
While the Vive is tethered to a PC via a 5-meter cable, it employs two tracking beacons -- one on each side of the room -- to detect its location and motion, and allows the wearer to not just move his head, but also get up and move around. The prototype has two 4-megapixel cameras that help detect objects around you so you don't accidentally bump into them while wearing the headgear. The headset also comes with wireless controllers, allow you to control your immersive experience.
HTC is also partnering with content companies like HBO, Lionsgate and Google to bring more video to the headset.
Smartphone rival Samsung also has a virtual reality system, Gear VR, which incorporates Oculus technology with its Galaxy Note 4 smartphone as the display and brains of the system. But Gear VR is a stationary experience -- you can move your head around, but you remain seated when watching the content. HTC is hoping to go further with its Vive.
"We will bring you a virtual reality experience no one has seen before with a groundbreaking partner in Valve," CEO HTC CEO Peter Chou said.
The Vive dev kit will be publicly available in April. HTC said it would launch a commercial product by the end of the year.
For HTC, this represents a lot of new, different directions at once. The question is whether it can balance all of the products but still find a way to stand out with its trademark design acumen.
