HTC has denied the rumors, however talk of a Senseless HTC One has not stopped. In fact, additional reports are continuing to surface. The latest, which once again is dealing with ‘people familiar with the matter’ is bringing claims that the phone is real and that it will be released in limited quantities. That is not to say a limited edition, but more like it will be a limited initial run to judge the market.
Anyway, this latest report is coming by way of the folks at Pocket-lint who note that HTC will release a “HTC One with stock Android.” They go on to mention about how the “numbers are going to be limited, like very limited.” Here is where the limited aspect comes in though. It was said that HTC will release “around 1 per cent of total sales of the device so far” to judge reaction to the Senseless version.
Based on that and based on a recent sales report from HTC and that would have this handset coming in with roughly 50,000 units. Of course, we offer this as a reminder — the Senseless HTC One is still nothing more than rumor at this point in time. Here lies the question though, assuming this happens and assuming the 50,000 estimate proves accurate — will HTC even be able to sell that many.
Sure, there is plenty of chatter and seemingly plenty of people that want to make a purchase, but will those same people be around if and when the handset is available for sale. This will likely come down to pricing. Take the Google Edition GALAXY S 4 as an example and we are thinking HTC maybe better off skipping a Senseless HTC One.
The Google Edition GALAXY S 4 is pricey. It is priced high enough where the average user will likely not even give it a second thought. Not to mention, we suspect those who are super into having an HTC One (or GALAXY S 4) running vanilla Android would be able to install various other third party ROMs and achieve almost the same result. Of course, the one caveat with that is future updates from Google. Still, we cannot get passed the price and we are thinking even a limited run may be a big risk for a financially struggling HTC.
SOURCE: Pocket-lint
