HTC Two Flagships

HTC ahead of the rumored launch of the HTC 11 which is expected to pack all that is lacking in the HTC 10, its predecessor has been rumored to be planning a major launch of not one but two flagship devices.

The Taiwanese company after it made the hugely customizable HTC U Ultra and U-Play known to the world at the CES 2017 and available for sale sooner than expected is said to be planning two other smartphone launch.

With the latest news which comes days after HTC released a noted indicating that it will soon start taking pre-orders for the more premium sapphire based U Ultra brings the total number of smartphones expected from the company up from two to about three or four for the first quarter of the year.

The president of the Taiwanese smartphone company, Chailin Chang in an interview conducted with tech news publication Tbreak, revealed that the company has huge plans for the year 2017 which may or may not include the wearables which have so much been expected in the market.

Chang noted during the interview that the HTC’s U Ultra which was unveiled at the CES 2017 is probably not the last flagship device for the company this year. This lends credibility to the rumors which had earlier surfaced indicating that Samsung, a major smartphone manufacturing company had been hoarding the latest 10nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processors which it produces on Qualcomm’s behalf and based on this, other firms like HTC and LG have been forced to go for a lower processor, the Snapdragon 821 SoC on their U Ultra and G6 respectively.

According to reports, following the release of the Galaxy S8 device before the end of the year, projected to be in April, the supply of the Snapdragon 835 chipset will increase enough for other manufacturers to get a production size scoop for their next flagship devices.

Chang during the chat further noted: “Every time there is a brand new CPU with power that we can leverage, we’re always at the forefront doing that. Some people are talking about the timing [of our release], but the timing was determined nine months ago. This is the best CPU out there. When the next flagship CPU comes in, HTC will be one of the very first tiers doing that.”

“When we will look back, it will be clear why HTC introduced [these new phones.] We want to have a couple of months of leadership before the next flagship CPU comes. But that will be in another period- not at MWC. Not for us or any other player. I can tell you that for sure. When the new CPU comes, HTC will have another flagship.”

Although the HTC president did not explicitly reveal he was referring to the Snapdragon 835 chipset, tech analysts have pointed the search radar in the direction which means we may be getting something premium loaded with the new chipset before the year runs out from HTC.

Interestingly, HTC’s president further hinted on the possibility of the smartphones featuring the Google AI assistants which have recently been heard to have been incorporated into the LG G6 making it the first Android smartphone to sport the technological feature from Google asides the Google Pixel series.

As Samsung is planning big on its own AI assistant, Bixby which has been said to be packing more than expected and projected to beat the likes of  Siri off the chart, HTC may be looking into tapping into the AI assistant pool with Google as a partner.

Chang said: “At some point in time, it will come [to our phones] when it’s ready. Google wants HTC to do Google Assistant so it can spread to get big data and allow them many things. They want us to incorporate the Assistant in a standard, prominent way. We will use that, but that’s in the cloud. Beyond that, there is a lot of device information that can be helpful to a consumer which we want to provide [with our AI].”

The AI assistant will, however, be coming on at a point when the smartphone company is working harder to improve its HTC Sense Companion AI assistant as it featured in the HTC U Ultra during the launch at the CES 2017.

Chang further noted that his company and Google are working on multiple things adding that “there’s always a different product.” Which suggests the smartphone company may be looking for a way to make both assistants work hand in hand with a seamless and heightened technological experience.