If anyone is still wondering whether the HTC One is a make-or-break launch for the Taiwanese company, this week’s news should make it clear. This weekend the company is offering $100 – $375 to smartphone users who trade in their phones for the HTC One. AT&T, Sprint Nextel and T-Mobile all carry the phone, but only AT&T has the 64GB version.
As of Thursday morning, Sprint Nextel’s website is already offering the phone for $100, AT&T’s site has the 32GB still at $199 and the 64GB at $299, and T-Mobile is charging $579 for the phone but users pay over a two-year period.
In addition to the cash back, HTC One is making a website available to its new customers to help them move their contacts and other personal information onto the HTC One more easily.
HTC will be paying that cash to customers at a time when its profitability is in jeopardy. The company released its audited financials today, confirming that it needs to find success with its most recent launch in order to stay in the black. The company earned NT$85 million ($2.8 million) on revenue of NT$42.8 billion ($1.4 billion). Earnings were just 2% of the $151 million HTC earned in the first quarter of 2012, and revenue was down 37% from the year-ago quarter. “This was a pivotal quarter for HTC,” said Peter Chou, CEO of HTC. “In February our teams set a new standard for smartphones, launching the new HTC One.”
The HTC One features an all-aluminum body, an “ultrapixel” camera, and two front stereo speakers. It runs Android 4.2 (upgradable to 4.2.2) on Qualcomm’s quad-core 600 Snapdragon processor.
For consumers who want the HTC One but don’t need all the bells and whistles, HTC is said to be preparing a scaled-down version of the phone to launch at lower price points. Reports say the HTC M4 will have a smaller display and a less powerful chip than the One, but will include the ultrapixel camera.
