99.9% sure leak

npaladin-2000

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Yeah, they're done. They need to disrupt, they can't simply coast like this, you can only do that if you're the market leader by a fairly massive margin (to defuse the inevitable dumb comparisons with Samsung's tiny design changes).

When you have something like this, how do you tell Joe Enduser to buy it over the previous gen? The only thing that might resonate is "improved camera." And if the camera doesn't matter to them, then guess what?
 

P_Devil

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Well, after seeing the two S6 leaks from Samsung, I think it's safe to say that I will be picking up the M9. I just don't trust Samsung enough with their updates to get a Note Edge or a Note 4, not after what they have done with my S5 and the Android 5.0.0 upgrade. I don't want to get another Samsung phone running Android 4.4.4 only to experience another botched update.

I think Vlad is spot on. Many people are prematurely judging the design of the M9 despite HTC saying that it would be more evolutionary than revolutionary. They were expecting a complete overhaul because they hyped themselves up for one. Vlad is also correct in that there wasn't much to improve with the M8. The camera was the first and foremost needed upgrade and, if the 20MP shooter has OIS, it will definitely be an upgrade over the M8's 4uMP camera. I was never really bothered by the slick back simply because my phones are always in cases and the M9 will be no different but a more textured back is still welcomed.

I think a lot of people are having a pity party and are mad at HTC simply because they (the people) hyped themselves up for a huge design change. Even the S6 (and S6 Edge) aren't big design changes from the S5, that wasn't much of a design change from the S4, that wasn't too different from the S3, etc. HTC isn't the first company to release more iterative updates to their flagship smartphone and they won't be the last.

The only thing I'm disappointed with is the lack of a phablet from HTC. Then again, that disappointment is my own doing as I wanted to believe those Evaleaks so I chose to believe them. I'm still holding out some hope that HTC is going to release a 5.5" phone but I know the M9 will be a formidable flagship even if they don't.

As for LG, I just can't wait until April. I'm sure the G4 will be a fine smartphone but my S5 barely gets through a day on a single charge and that's with an extended 7500 mAh battery. It's not the battery but the upgrade to Android 5.0.0 that's ruined it. I need a working phone soon. I'm willing to wait a couple of weeks but I'm hoping that Verizon has the M9 available on Sunday after it's announced just like they did with the M8.
 

ibcop

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While I was hoping for the evleak design for the M9, I will keep an open mind and see what HTC reveals about it. While I did have the M8 for little while, the camera was the number one turn off for me. And it was slippery without a case but I rarely dont have at least a TPU case on my devices.

I saw the leaks of the S6 and the "normal" version looks ho-hum to me as looking pretty close to the S5 on the front. I'm going to play the wait and see game with them as well.
 

npaladin-2000

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See? I KNEW someone would bring up the fact that Samsung doesn't change their designs much if at all. If you had the lion's share of the market already you wouldn't either. If, on the other hand, you're HTC and looking to grow your market share...staying the course is a dumb move, you need to innovate and disrupt.

But go ahead, bash the market leader for sticking with what got them market leadership. It only shows how little you know.
 

ibcop

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See? I KNEW someone would bring up the fact that Samsung doesn't change their designs much if at all. If you had the lion's share of the market already you wouldn't either. If, on the other hand, you're HTC and looking to grow your market share...staying the course is a dumb move, you need to innovate and disrupt.

But go ahead, bash the market leader for sticking with what got them market leadership. It only shows how little you know.

Who is bashing? WTF are you talking about?
 

neo905

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Yeah, they're done. They need to disrupt, they can't simply coast like this, you can only do that if you're the market leader by a fairly massive margin (to defuse the inevitable dumb comparisons with Samsung's tiny design changes).

When you have something like this, how do you tell Joe Enduser to buy it over the previous gen? The only thing that might resonate is "improved camera." And if the camera doesn't matter to them, then guess what?

It's not the M8 customers they are trying to woo here. Most people don't get a new phone every year. It is the 2 year contract cycle that matters and people coming from alternatives. As an M7 user I would have liked to see something much different. The evleak was a slamdunk sale. Now I am looking at other options as well as the M9. For new users to HTC this may attract them. They may have not gotten it last year because of the camera so this would be all new for them. They just don't have the advertising budget to attract those people. So they will be spinning their tires again this year unless they come out with a Phablet that looks like the evleak render. Then they have a chance.
 

unashamedgeek

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My disappointment is that I wouldn't call what they have a done to be an evolutionary design change since all they really did was update the internals of the device. I think an evolutionary design change would be if they got rid of the HTC black bar and changed the look of the speakers. I would consider a revolutionary change to be something more drastic. I agree that the M7 was a good looking device, but it wasn't perfect. I believe the biggest complaints were the camera and the HTC black bar, so I see not addressing both of those issues as being a disappointment.

Regarding Samsung not changing their design, from what I can tell, people never really complain about the physical look of the device. While not everyone likes the home button, that is their design and it does provide functionality for them. I don't feel that the HTC black bar and the Samsung home button are the same since one has a function and one doesn't. I have heard the black bar is for some engineering reason, but other phones don't need that dead space and I haven't seen it definitively stated from HTC that this is required. However, I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm mistaken.
 

Shepx13

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It's not the M8 customers they are trying to woo here. Most people don't get a new phone every year. It is the 2 year contract cycle that matters and people coming from alternatives. As an M7 user I would have liked to see something much different. The evleak was a slamdunk sale. Now I am looking at other options as well as the M9. For new users to HTC this may attract them. They may have not gotten it last year because of the camera so this would be all new for them. They just don't have the advertising budget to attract those people. So they will be spinning their tires again this year unless they come out with a Phablet that looks like the evleak render. Then they has a chance.
Most buyers don't care if the phone looks similar, only some enthusiasts on sites like this.

I'd rather see them stay with something that's well thought out and fundamentally strong than a stupid marketing gimmick like the curved edged Samsung.

If it's got an sd card slot, a good battery and a camera with ois, they'll get my money, regardless if it looks the same or not. Function overrules looks for those of us not suffering insecurity problems.
 

cwise222

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If that is the final design (I'd still say it more 60/40 or 70/30 that this is the final design) then it moved from a day 1 upgrade to wait and see for me. The design is exactly the same as the M8, and my M8 is getting Lollipop and will get Sense 7 at some point and my M8 runs buttery smooth without the upgraded specs of the M9. The incentive just ins't there for me to spend the money on an M9, at least until I compare the other phone options and maybe try out an M9 for myself.

I also worry a little but about people walking into the store and seeing the M9 and thinking, I didn't want the last one, why would I want the new one? It's the same! HTC suffering more sales wise is bad, they pretty much kicked off the 'premium quality' cell phone trend.
 

lindseybp

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Most buyers don't care if the phone looks similar, only some enthusiasts on sites like this.

I'd rather see them stay with something that's well thought out and fundamentally strong than a stupid marketing gimmick like the curved edged Samsung.

If it's got an sd card slot, a good battery and a camera with ois, they'll get my money, regardless if it looks the same or not. Function overrules looks for those of us not suffering insecurity problems.

The problem is that this phone look so similar a lot of "joe on the street" buyers may just assume it's the M8. All of us on these boards make up a VERY small percentage of total sales for these companies. It's the average buyer with limited phone knowledge where they get the most sales. If these people didn't jump to the M7 or M8 then there is little here to make them switch. Right or wrong I think the look of the phone plays a big part for the average consumer. It's also about marketing muscle and Samsung is the king there. If Samsung gives some incentives to employees at the carrier stores to push the S6 then when your average consumer walks in the S6 is going to get pushed hard. They will see the edge and it will feel to them like Samsung is on the cutting edge of design, etc. and then they see the M9 and it is essentially the same as the M8. Don't get me wrong I think most on these boards are educated enough to know how good the M9 will be but HTC will be made or broken on the large volume of "average" consumers out there. For this reason, assuming this design of the M9 is truly the one, I think HTC is going to have some problems. Just my two cents.
 

P_Devil

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But go ahead, bash the market leader for sticking with what got them market leadership. It only shows how little you know.

So it's OK for you to bash HTC for following the same path as Samsung, the market leader but we can't do the same to Samsung? You are also kidding yourself if you think most smartphone consumers are getting new phones every year. Not to be insulting but you said it first: "It only shows how little you know."
 

smooth3006

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Im still gonna buy at launch. It didnt need a total redesign. The m7 & m8 were two of the best designed phones out there. People are overreacting.
 

jlarkins08

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I feel like this upgrade is for the people who wanted the M8 but didn't buy it because of the camera specs. Now HTC has a real contender for the people who were on the fence with the M8. I'm not upgrading this year but I will sell the hell out of this phone!

Sent from my HTC One M8 via the UnCarrier
 

npaladin-2000

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So it's OK for you to bash HTC for following the same path as Samsung, the market leader but we can't do the same to Samsung?

Whatever Samsung is doing, it gained them market leadership, so they're entirely justified in doing the same thing over and over again with minimal changes. HTC is not in that situation.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a DIFFERENT result. Samsung is expecting the SAME result. And however much I might not like them, they've got the largest market share and are apparently doing something RIGHT. Doing something RIGHT and not changing is forgivable. Doing something WRONG and not changing is dumb. Hence, HTC = dumb, Samsung <> dumb. That's the difference that you'd like to forget.

People really need to take off the fanboy blinders sometimes.
 

lindseybp

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Im still gonna buy at launch. It didnt need a total redesign. The m7 & m8 were two of the best designed phones out there. People are overreacting.

I just don't see how this phone is going to get them any significant additional market share? It's not that it will be a bad phone, I think it will be smooth as butter, but HTC needs to get more market share and this design does not have the "wow" factor to pull people over from other devices. Essentially it's the third iteration of the (basically) same design.....not that this is a bad thing but your average uneducated consumer might equate this to lack of innovation or boring. We all know there is more to it than that but it's the average, non-smartphone forum user who will decide the war.
 

Shepx13

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The problem is that this phone look so similar a lot of "joe on the street" buyers may just assume it's the M8. All of us on these boards make up a VERY small percentage of total sales for these companies. It's the average buyer with limited phone knowledge where they get the most sales. If these people didn't jump to the M7 or M8 then there is little here to make them switch. Right or wrong I think the look of the phone plays a big part for the average consumer. It's also about marketing muscle and Samsung is the king there. If Samsung gives some incentives to employees at the carrier stores to push the S6 then when your average consumer walks in the S6 is going to get pushed hard. They will see the edge and it will feel to them like Samsung is on the cutting edge of design, etc. and then they see the M9 and it is essentially the same as the M8. Don't get me wrong I think most on these boards are educated enough to know how good the M9 will be but HTC will be made or broken on the large volume of "average" consumers out there. For this reason, assuming this design of the M9 is truly the one, I think HTC is going to have some problems. Just my two cents.
The average Joe on the street won't even know the phone looks similar to the old one. Most people only upgrade every 2-3 years.
 

P_Devil

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Whatever Samsung is doing, it gained them market leadership, so they're entirely justified in doing the same thing over and over again with minimal changes. HTC is not in that situation.

But Samsung has only ever done the same thing with each of their smartphones. All of the Galaxy S updates were small and evolutionary, same with all of the Note updates. The biggest update to any of their smartphones came with the Note Edge and that was only after four years of having the Note released. So why can't HTC do the same thing? In fact, every smartphone manufacturer has done the same thing. Each update is not intended for people to get new phones every year especially when most people are on two year contracts and get new phones only when those contracts are up. No, smartphone updates now are for people to upgrade every other year. You will only ever see small updates when upgrading every year. Compare the S4 to the S5, there wasn't much of a difference in performance, camera quality, or anything else. Compare the S3 to the S5. Well yeah, that was a big leap in performance, battery life, camera quality, display quality, etc. Compare the M8 to the M9. It's not much. Compare the M7 to the M9. Again, there will be major leaps and bounds in performance (especially for 64-bit optimized apps).

I'm not sure why you are hammering HTC for making an evolutionary update when every company (Samsung, Apple, LG, Google, Motorola, etc.) has only ever done that between each annual release. HTC's sales numbers may have decreased but that doesn't make them dead. They are still above and beyond BlackBerry. Even if HTC were to dramatically re-design the M9, I doubt it would make much of a difference. People are so caught up with brands now that they are either Apple or Samsung. Very few people know about HTC, Motorola (which used to be a household name), Sony BlackBerry, Microsoft, and Nexus phones. That doesn't mean that those other companies make bad products, far from it. They can still be successful in their own right without taking down Samsung or Apple.

HTC's goal at this point is to sell more phones, not sell more phones than Samsung. They could easily do that with the leaked M9 design especially if all of the issues with the M8's design have been fixed.
 

markymark

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Whatever Samsung is doing, it gained them market leadership, so they're entirely justified in doing the same thing over and over again with minimal changes. HTC is not in that situation.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a DIFFERENT result. Samsung is expecting the SAME result. And however much I might not like them, they've got the largest market share and are apparently doing something RIGHT. Doing something RIGHT and not changing is forgivable. Doing something WRONG and not changing is dumb. Hence, HTC = dumb, Samsung <> dumb. That's the difference that you'd like to forget.

People really need to take off the fanboy blinders sometimes.

Agree. Samsung is well entrenched as the market leader for Android. HTC is trying to survive and hopefully improve their market share. Ever heard the expression "#2 tries harder"? Well HTC is more like #3 or 4 or 5. So they need to try really really hard. If the new M9 is truly this slightly modified M8, in my opinion that is an epic fail for HTC. Not that it will be a bad phone. Heck, I might even buy it as I'm currently still using a 2012 Moto RMHD. But if the M8 was lagging in sales, there is nothing new here that would attract anyone towards the M9. The evleaks render would have been an instant buy for a lot of people, including me. A slightly modified M8 is a definite maybe for me and probably a pass for any prospective new HTC customers. If they didn't bite on the M7 or M8, there is nothing new here to attract them.
 

lindseybp

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The average Joe on the street won't even know the phone looks similar to the old one. Most people only upgrade every 2-3 years.

I would guess the average person upgrades roughly every 2 years so that would mean they had the option to purchase the M7 which looks very similar to the M9. But not that they would remember it....2 years is a long time.

Don't get me wrong....I really am rooting for HTC. If the M8 had a better camera I would have bought it.