Verizon won’t carry the HTC One after all … or will it?
After we heard initial rumors that Verizon Wireless would indeed carry the HTC One, reports surfaced over the weekend that this wasn’t a part of Verizon’s plans at all. This was fueled by an official tweet from @HTCUSA:
The HTC One will not be available on the Verizon network, but have you seen the awesome, #DROIDDNA?http://s.htc.com/12Tl1kj.
This is certainly disappointing news for HTC’s fans, who had hoped that a unified launch of the HTC One would help the company turn itself around, after multiple quarters of declining sales numbers and profits. Indeed, if HTC is to learn anything from its rivals Samsung and Apple, it is that a unified release of the same phone on multiple carriers can only help improve brand recognition and loyalty among consumers.
But now, that very same tweet has been deleted, leading some to speculate that HTC does in fact have something up its sleeve for Verizon Wireless, although most likely some time after the release of the One on the three other major US carriers. It’s not quite clear what this device would be called, or how it would be marketed, but maybe HTC’s Android offerings won’t be quite so fragmented after all.
What do you think? Should HTC cave to Verizon and release another DROID-branded device? Or should it follow in Samsung’s footsteps, and insist that Verizon carry the HTC One?
[Androinica]
