HTC Corporation

While many of the devices on the list have rumored or leaked release dates already, BGR claimed to have Verizon’s summer/fall roadmap that details flagship smartphones being launched later this year.

According to the report, Verizon Wireless will offer Samsung’s highly anticipated and much rumored Galaxy S3, which the company confirmed yesterday will pack its new 1.4GHz Exynos 4 quad-core processor. The report does not give a release date, but it speculated a summer release based on the roadmap.

Also apparently on the roadmap are multiple Motorola RAZR devices and a new 5-inch HTC device that appears to be a Galaxy Note competitor…

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I’ve had my HTC One S review unit for a week and can say that what I found before still stands. Without a doubt (O.K., one little one), this is the phone to get if you are on T-Mobile. In fact, there are few phones available from any carriers that can stand with this device. Here’s why:

• The screen is beautiful. The not too big, not too small, 4.3-inch diagonally 540-by-960 display is not the monster that most high-end Androids tout today, but it is well big enough for just about anything you could throw at it. It is bright, vibrant and stands its ground to direct sunlight. Pixels are not discernable in normal use.
• The phone is thin, light, and strong. At under 8mm thin, you will not find a thinner phone anywhere. At the same time, it has a beautiful unibody aluminum construction. It feels great in the hand and is relatively unnoticeable in the pocket.
• Sense 4.0, while still an overlay, is an improvement from HTC. I really liked the camera software, as well as the some of the little weather, Stock, Sense Widgets, etc. I also like T-MobileTV, which broadcasts some good live and other content over the mobile network or Wi-Fi.
• The experience is polished all around. Fast processor, ample battery time and great Beats sound.

To make the deal sweeter, T-Mobile started trade-ins today, which means you could get the One S free. Get the HTC One S for $199 on a two-year plan now.

Related articles

• HTC One S landing on T-Mobile April 25 for $199 (9to5google.com)
• Review: T-Mobile’s HTC One – 2012 is a whole new ballgame (9to5google.com)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZZzn4EPN9Q]

T-Mobile’s launch of the HTC One S should be seen as the first real phone benchmark for 2012. That is good because 2011 was a bad year for both T-Mobile and HTC.

We have a bold new generation of devices from a beaten up manufacturer on a carrier that is just now emerging from the AT&T merger/breakup.

Without even turning the One S on, you will immediately marvel at the hardware. It is an incredible 7.8mm thin, which is significantly thinner than the thinnest Galaxy S2 or iPhone 4S. It is also 118g light, yet it is a metallic solid, owing to its unibody aluminum construction. With angular/rounded corners, it feels great in the hand and the dark Gorilla Glass on metal look is as nice of a design as you will find on any device. It has three capacitive buttons on the bottom, which we owe to the new Ice Cream Sandwich user-interface.

It is hard for me to imagine someone going into a T-Mobile store and coming out with anything else but this phone.  Sure, the new Galaxies have slightly bigger screens, but this feels much more solid and has the same resolution. Moreover, last year’s HTC Sensation and Amaze feel like a grenades compared to the svelte HTC One S.

Let’s dig in:

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An HTC Golf press image surfaced this afternoon and reaffirms the smartphone-maker has yet to finish dabbling in the low-end spectrum. 

HTC has been struggling since the second-half of last year and disappointing Q4 2011 earnings (PDF) even inspired a new handset strategy. The manufacturer previously announced it would no longer clutter the smartphone market with a sea of generic Android devices and would instead focus on the One line of high-end Android smartphones.

PocketNow dug up today’s press leak, however, which seems to contradict HTC’s claims. The website also spilled the goods as to what the upcoming Ice Cream Sandwich-powered device is packing, but keep in mind that it is currently codenamed and might end up as the “Wildfire C.”

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HTC released unaudited Q1 2012 sales figures today, and the painful results show the Taiwanese manufacturer is floundering due to heavy competition.

First-quarter revenues pulled $2.3 billion USD, which is a 35-percent drop year-over-year (PDF), while net profit plummeted 70 percent to roughly $148 million USD.

HTC Chief Financial Officer Winston Yung predicted the rough quarter due to increased competition from Samsung and Apple, but he also blamed HTC for the sudden down spiral.

“We simply dropped the ball on products in the fourth quarter,” said Yung said during the Feb. 6 conference call, while noting the Rezound and Vivid handsets did not meet the company’s expectations.

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=JpdPU8QatDM]

As we noted in our live event coverage, the Sprint EVO One features HD Audio, which should allow users to hear the other side of the conversation much more vividly. Perhaps to illustrate the feature, the HTC promo video brings back the famous 80’s commercial Pin drop.

This is Sprint’s 1980s Pin Drop commercial:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnlqrMWVYCs]

HTC details the design work in the video below:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=pNlGtUPuabs]

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[slideshow]

Notes from the event:

• – Narrator introduction: Sprint was the first carrier with nationwide 4G, first with 3G, and it unveiled the first 3D phone.

Sprint CEO Dan Hesse takes the presentation stage floor:

• – He talks about Sprint’s successful partnership with HTC and Evo.
• – Showcases network vision, which is an initiative designed to give customers a better network coverage and experience.
• – He mentions that Evo is an HD voice- capable phone. Mobile voice quality is crystal clear. Enhanced voice quality for Sprint stems back to fiber optic network days of Sprint’s heritage.

The full-sized pictures are below:

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The first HTC Evo One reviews are starting to flood the gate before its official launch tonight and initial impressions indicate the device has both good and bad points.

An.droid-life.com said the smartphone is bulky, yet it boasts stellar-quality Beats Audio by Dr. Dre, Ice Cream Sandwich OS with Sense 4.0, and a 8-megapixel shooter and 1.3-megapixel camera worth drooling over.

Despite the praise, the reviewer noted the device “just feels like HTC’s same old thing.” The trimmed Sense and usual ICS experience seemed a bit ho-hum, but then he added that his time spent with the smartphone was limited so complete details are not possible at this time.

A screenshot gallery is available below.

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The latest marketshare-ish numbers are in for Android and it seems that people continue to update their phones…to Gingerbread. Almost two-thirds of all Android phones hitting the market in the last two weeks are running Android 2.3.x with a significant share—23.1-percent still on Android 2.2 Froyo. Honeycomb, the Tablet-only fix OS, is at around 3.3-percent, while Ice Cream Sandwich is on a scant 2.9-percent of devices including Galaxy Nexus, Acer Transformer Prime, and newly updated HTC Vivid (along with some custom builds and some unlocked manufacturer phones).

The distribution over time (below) is showing the long haul ICS has ahead of it (and do not forget we are likely going to hear about Jelly Bean at Google I/O in June).

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Verizon just knocked $150 from the HTC Rezound’s sticker price.

The carrier is now offering the Android-based smartphone for $49.99 with a two-year contract. That’s a great deal for a 4G device showcasing a 4.3-inch Super LCD screen, 720p HD display, dual-core 1.5GHz processor, 8-megapixel rear-facing camera with a dual LED flash, and Beats by Dr. Dre.

According to Droid-Life, the HTC Rezound is also eyeing an Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade in the next couple of weeks, which is just one more reason to take advantage of today’s sale.

Go to Verizon’s website to check out the details (a zip code prompt is required).

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Getting your Android smartphones upgraded to the latest version is an important factor in considering which carrier to go with, because some carriers push updates quickly while others let things fall by the wayside.

This time around, AT&T is the first carrier to upgrade one of its phones to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. Besides the Galaxy Nexus devices, and anything running a hacked version or Cyanogen Mod, Vivid owners will be the first U.S. device owners running ICS.

A version of ICS briefly hit Vivid owners earlier this week, but it was pulled. At the moment, we are not able to do the update, but we are told it is rolling out now.

According to HTC’s Twitter account, the Vivid will also get Beats by Dre audio functionality as well.

[tweet https://twitter.com/#!/HTCUSA/status/182873787665104896]

The full release is below, including AT&T’s full ICS roadmap…
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We have talked about the HTC Endeavor a lot lately as a rumored Mobile World Congress announcement draws closer. However, a new report from Economic Daily News (via DigiTimes) indicates that the Endeavor will be announced by HTC on Feb. 26, just one day before MWC kicks off.

HTC will unveil Endeavor on February 26, one day before the opening of the 2012 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the paper indicated.

The HTC Endeavor will reportedly pack a 1.5GHz Tegra 3 based Quad-Core processor, 4.7-inch 720P HD screen, 8-megapixel camera, 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera, 1GB of RAM, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth 4.0. The handset will also feature Beats audio experience onboard, as well the Sense 4.0 user interface that was shown off today. So, stay tuned!

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You can either love or hate HTC’s Sense user interface. HTC includes Sense on its Android devices as a skin that goes on top of stock Android. Sense provides UI enhancements and widgets. Some customers like it, and many hate it — like me. However, that is not going to stop HTC from including it in its future phones.

The good folks over at Android Central did a little snooping this weekend, and were able to get their hands on the new Sense 4.0. Sense 4.0 is rumored to be announced with the quad-core HTC Endeavor at Mobile World Conference in a few weeks.

If you want to check out the new Sense 4.0 on your device, you can give it a download. If you are not up for the challenge, we also posted screenshots after the break (via Android Central):

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A new device called the “HTC Edge” leaked. It was the world’s first rumored quad-core handset. Fast forward to last month, and PocketNow reported that HTC renamed the HTC Edge to the “HTC Endeavor.”

A new report from MoDaCo, said HTC is announcing the HTC Endeavor at Mobile World Conference in Barcelona in less than three weeks. If you are not familiar, MWC is the CES for phones and tablets.

MoDaCo’s sources confirmed that the HTC Endeavor will ship with a 1.5GHz Tegra 3 based Quad-Core processor, 4.7-inch 720P HD screen, 8-megapixel camera, 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera, 1GB of RAM, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth 4.0. The handset will also feature Beats audio experience onboard, as well as Sense 4.0…

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Following its November promise, Taiwanese handset maker HTC today detailed through its Facebook page the devices that will get Ice Cream Sandwich in March. The first round of upgrades will roll out by the end of March for the Sensation, Sensation 4G, and Sensation XE. The Sensation XL will upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich “soon thereafter,” the company noted. Additionally, other devices will get Ice Cream Sandwich upgrades “later this year,” including the Rezound, Vivid, Amaze 4G, EVO 3D, EVO Design 4G, Incredible S, Desire S, and Desire HD.

After posting a 26 percent profit drop for the holiday quarter, HTC warned it will scale back its 2012 roadmap to focus on flagship devices rather than spread itself thin developing, manufacturing and marketing dozens of short-lived phones. The company will make announcements at Mobile World Congress that runs Feb. 27 to March 1 in Barcelona, Spain. The rumor-mill thinks HTC will launch the Ville and Edge handsets at the show; the latter being billed the world’s first quad-core smartphone. The device should run Nvidia’s Tegra 3 chip sporting four processing cores clocked at 1.5GHz.

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It would appear that Android backers are finally giving up their practice of carpet-bombing the market with countless models that offer little differentiation. Thus far, this served the Android camp well as the resulting media coverage diverted spotlight away from Apple’s iPhone and helped mainstream smartphones built around Google’s platform. Earlier this month, Sony Ericsson made public plans to release fewer phones in 2012 and now Taiwan-based handset maker HTC is following suit.

The company will focus on quality and so-called ‘hero’ devices rather than waste time and energy developing a multitude of models, most of which have short shelf lives. This will help cut development cost and boost HTC’s bottom line that took a hit in the crucial holiday quarter amid the iPhone 4S march.

HTC UK chief Phil Roberson told Mobile Magazine today:

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Source: HTC

HTC posted unaudited consolidated results for the fourth quarter of 2011 this morning. The numbers do not look good for Asia’s second-largest handset maker as net income fell 26 percent annually to $11 billion in New Taiwan currency, or approximately $364 million USD – its first quarterly profit decline in two years. Revenue for the quarter was NT$101,419 million, a 2.49 percent annual decline.

Unaudited operating income reached NT$12.98 billion, but net income after tax was NT$11.02 billion, which is slightly behind the NT$11.6 billion expected by 11 analysts polled by Bloomberg.

Shares fell 4.2 percent to a three-week low of NT$462 in Taipei trading as Citigroup cut both the 2012 and 2013 earnings estimates for the company by 19 percent each. Citigroup explained its decision with the expected market share losses to Apple and Samsung. Surely, the writing has been on the wall for HTC for some time (here and here). More information and another chart are featured right after the break.

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EzmdP4AKMI#!]

Friendly, amusing, relevant, focused on product features but without offending either camp (Samsung, we’re looking at you). Love the cheap tune, BTW.

From the YouTube description:

The iPhone 4S owner learns the hard way that its new camera can’t hold up to some of the killer camera features on the T-Mobile HTC Amaze 4G such as BurstShot, SmartShot panorama and SweepShot.

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Last week (ending today), Amazon had a pretty incredible Penny Pincher sale where it offered just about every Android and otherwise phone (except Apple’s iPhone) for a penny with a two year plan.  That’s what we call a game-changing, evening of the field.  Sure, carriers and the plans matter, but if every phone is free, you can get a pretty good idea which are the most sought after phones in the “price not being an option” category.

From our Amazon Affiliate account we can see just how many of each phone our readers picked up, thereby getting a pretty good sample of what are the hot phones out there.  Here are some stats:

• – >90% of phones were Android (not surprising from a Google site)
• – Motorola Droid RAZR and Sprint’s Galaxy SII were the big winners (well done readers!)
• – Verizon was the dominant carrier with the top selling (RAZR), and 3 of the top 5 phones.
• – Samsung Galaxy SII was 3 of the top 6 and the number one seller overall across all carriers
• – We’re aren’t sure why*, but 9 of you bought Motorola Bionic’s giving Motorola the second place prize (*We love the RAZR and aren’t sure why one would pick a Bionic over a RAZR).
• – HTC was #3 with the Rezound having an impressive showing  and the Thunderbolt getting picked up 5 times (again, not sure why you’d pick a Thunderbolt over a Rezound at the same price). HTC on AT&T was a poor showing with none of the new Amaze 4Gs showing up.  In fact, with the Titan, HTC sold more Windows phones on AT&T than it did Android.  The EVO wasn’t as popular as you’d expect on Sprint with the Galaxy S II selling a whopping 9 times as many units on the carrier
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Overall, no huge surprises, especially at the top, though we’re somewhat surprised that Sprint’s Galaxy SII beat both of AT&T’s combined.  Toward the bottom, we started seeing some unlocked Nokias (5 C6’s) Windows Phones (3 HTC Titans, 3 Samsung Focus Ss) and a few BlackBerry Bolds.

The big question is: How will the Galaxy Nexus on Verizon upset the line?  Whatever the outcome, Verizon is already the clear winner with the RAZR and Rezound (and Bionic) already topping many granted  holiday wish lists.

Fuller results below:
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