HTC Advantage seeks to solve many smartphone customers’ pain points

Curious about what HTC’s teaser tweet was all about this weekend? Well, today is February 18, and we finally have some answers.

HTC has just announced the new HTC Advantage plan, which gives several nice benefits to HTC One owners, including free repairs and a commitment to better software. Let’s take a closer look at what this means:

• HTC One owners can replace cracked screens one time, free of charge. The replacement has to take place within the first six months of ownership, and those who opt for this will unfortunately be without their phones for several days – HTC will send you a box, you will send your phone to HTC, and then you have to wait for the repairs and the return shipping.
• There’s a $29 option for expedited overnight shipping and a refurbished loaner phone that you can use while your phone is getting repaired. While this isn’t free, it’s still a good option to have in case you don’t have a spare phone and can’t be without yours. Keep in mind that HTC doesn’t have to offer this at all, so I’m happy to see this. Note that for both the free and paid versions of this offer, only screen damage is covered. If HTC discovers water damage or other types of damage, you might get charged extra.
• HTC has finally committed to a two-year software upgrade cycle, meaning Android fans who like to have the latest and greatest should no longer have to fear HTC’s inconsistent upgrade history with past devices. There are still some questions here, since HTC says it will only commit to “major” Android OS upgrades – what constitutes major? What kind of timeframe should consumes expect? Still, it’s better than the competition at this point.
• Finally, HTC has partnered with Google to offer 25-50GB of Google Drive storage for HTC One owners. This can vary depending on which device you have, and the offer will last for two years.

Basically, HTC is trying to solve some major customer pain points, and they seem to have hit a few of them head on. I can’t think of any other manufacturer who has committed to 24 months of updates and free replacement parts for user-damaged devices – that is pretty cool. Do you think this is enough to finally turn HTC into a true Android powerhouse again? Is this going to make you choose HTC for your next smartphone?

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