The HTC One won't be hitting UK shop shelves on Friday as expected -- instead the 4.7-inch smart phone will be arriving at the end of this month, or the beginning of April.
When the One, which plays host to HTC's Sense 5 interface and risky 4-megapixel camera was revealed in February, HTC said it would be on sale in the UK on 15 March, which is two days from now.
HTC confirmed the delay as in a statement, saying, "We will start fulfilling pre-orders by the end of March in certain markets and will roll out product to more markets as we approach April."
The delay follows reports that the phone has been delayed due to a lack of parts required to build the phone.
Delay disaster?
Smart phone delays are common, but this latest hitch could be more troublesome than most, mainly because Samsung is going to reveal its follow-up to the Samsung Galaxy S3 tomorrow night.
Had the HTC One hit shop shelves mere hours after the Galaxy S4 was revealed, more impatient shoppers could have snapped it up, unwilling to wait for Samsung's phone to be released. With this delay however, HTC could lose its lead, potentially seeing its new toy going on sale at the same time as its biggest rival.
Last year HTC's One X struggled in the shadow of the all-conquering Galaxy S3, so the HTC One is a very important mobile for the ailing manufacturer. Will its metal magic outshine whatever Samsung has to offer? Or could this latest delay prove fatal for the new phone? Let me know in the comments or on our Facebook wall.
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Comments 13
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anonymous 13 March, 2013 11:44
I think this might work in their favour.
The S4 will look like a screen (no doubt a gorgeous screen) with a bit of plastic on it, the HTC One will look like and feel like a premium phone. I don't believe the average Joe's well flock to it, and selling later will give the network retailers time to get over the S4 hype and begin pushing the HTC One for sales.
Damien2501 13 March, 2013 12:40
I think they are having production issues because they have moved away from the P material.
And CNET UK, I don't wanna see the HTC One review be anything like the HTC One X review - which is the worst piece of "journalism" I have ever seen.
anonymous 13 March, 2013 12:57
Only the black models of the handset has been delayed due to manufacturing issues.
Silver are not delayed as I have had 5 delivered to my store ready for sale on Friday.
Damien2701 13 March, 2013 13:20
I'd be prepared to wait for a truly premium phone
anonymous 13 March, 2013 15:16
Just had a text from Vodafone suggesting my pre-order is delayed to early April (3rd April). This is for a silver One.
anonymous 13 March, 2013 17:27
I notice that Amazon have the 29th March now for release of the SIM free ones, changed from the 15th.
Phones4u still guarantee the 15th March for the silver one, I haven't checked the others. I wonder how they can get it if there are worldwide problems, but Voda and others can't.
Bit annoyed, not the carriers' fault, although some retailers are obviously infront of them in the queue, which is annoying.
Mainly annoyed at HTC. I took a bit of a leap of faith pre ordering this phone instead of waiting for the S4 - mainly because of the reviews and the fact that I loved the Desire far more than I love my S2.
If I'm being cynical, I'd say this was a cynical move by HTC, to pull people in, get them to pre-order instead of waiting for the s4 (which will be announced before we get our ONEs), than say they have stock issues - surely they knew??
And I doubt it will allow retailers the chance to push it more - the Voda shop in Stockport had no idea what the phone was - even asking the manager who didn't have a clue.
anonymous 13 March, 2013 17:40
OH.......MY.......GOD!!!!
If Apple, HTC and so on were trying to sell things in an open market.........oh, wait......they are. Apalling!
aidey68 13 March, 2013 19:21
@Damien2501 I know it was truly cringeworthy implying it was huge and that the a quadcore cpu was overkill
from the HTC One X review "I generally found the One X awkward to hold, firstly because it's so big (and my hands aren't)"
from the S3 review "Even with this massive screen, the S3 feels relatively manageable"
anonymous 13 March, 2013 20:32
@Damien2701 they should of used plastic.
Damien2501 13 March, 2013 21:55
@aidey68 They even promised to update the review - I'm still waiting for that.
anonymous 14 March, 2013 07:53
Just as I was starting to convince myself I wanted this and not the S4... HTC are going to put themselves out of business at this rate, they don't need Samsungs help!
NickMUK 14 March, 2013 13:49
Most of the other websites I have looked at put the camera module as the likely cause of the delay, probably because of the different design. I don't think that the material used is the issue since aluminium should be relatively easy to source and work with.
I myself had the black pre-ordered on Orange but yesterday, (Wednesday) have found out from the phones4u forum and phoneline that it will be delayed until 02/04 however I was able to change to the silver version and was told I could expect that on the release date. However today, Thursday, it seems that only O2 and Voda customers can expect theirs on the 15th and EE/Orange/Tmob can expect it on the 20th.
What has really annoyed me about this is that Phones4U have made no attempt to contact me and advise me of the situation, and even when their staff respond to questions it seems they are telling different customers different things.
Ian Mackay 16 March, 2013 22:27
Received my silver htc one this morning from phones 4 u