HTC does what Google wouldn't: sell an LTE phone that sidesteps AT&T

[EverNap]

HTC does what Google wouldn't: sell an LTE phone that sidesteps AT&T
A barely-advertised version of HTC's stellar One is breaking critical ground
....HTC's done something extraordinarily important this month: it's broken AT&T's stranglehold on its nationwide LTE network.

I can't underscore enough what a big deal this is. It's a move that even Google, for all its money, power, and influence, didn't make with the Nexus 4.
.....
Of course, AT&T would prefer you not buy the unlocked version of this phone for obvious reasons: it can't get its own software in front of your face, it can't conform the phone to its own firmware update schedule, and it can't use hardware as leverage to sign you into another contract extension. And that's likely just one of a host of reasons that you won't see HTC heavily promoting this model's existence ? HTC's relationship with AT&T, unfortunately, is still far more important than its relationship with end users. But the mere fact that this unlocked phone exists, and is being sold directly by HTC to customers in the United States, is an extraordinarily encouraging sign.

So if you're on AT&T, you're in the market for an HTC One, and you're not up for a deeply-discounted upgrade, do yourself a favor: don't buy it from a carrier store, buy it straight from the source. You'll end up with a far better phone, and you'll help send a message that this is how it should be.
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More at The Verge

 

[aokusman1]

Bought mine outright from Att. I can unlock it whenever I want.

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 2

 

[EverNap]

umm..ok. I don't know if you've read the article, but it's not about unlocking the phone.

 

[JRDroid]

Bought mine outright from Att. I can unlock it whenever I want.

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 2

DISCLAIMER: I bought my on contract through AT&T

All that means is that you paid $25 more than buying from HTC and will get updates more slowly as you will get them from AT&T, not HTC directly. There is absolutely no advantage to buying this phone off contract through AT&T instead of HTC directly.

 

[EverNap]

^^ Exactly. The only advantage I can think of is that maybe he got to pick up his phone from the AT&T store a couple of days earlier than if he ordered from HTC.

imho, buying it at full price from AT&T is the worst of both worlds. You don't get a discount. You get a phone having AT&T's bloatware, and you are most likely gonna get updates later than customers who bought the phone from HTC.

 

[adriandb]

Bought mine outright from Att. I can unlock it whenever I want.

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 2

That completely misses the point. There's also no guarantee that the unlock will work forever.

 

[scorpiodsu]

I agree but many people would rather buy from their carrier because of the additional support they can receive rather than buying from an online source. And let's face it, the only people that most care about carrier updates and bloatware are people like us that browse forums like these. Other customers, don't care about those things. I do agree, if you have to spend full price, just get it from HTC but I certainly understand why everyone wouldn't want to go that route. Everyone just doesn't care about the same things. And HTC is only doing what Apple has done. Sell their phone through the carrier and also an unlocked one that we can buy through them. It's not like HTC has done anything groundbreaking and Google probably skipped the LTE on Nexus because of the price they wanted to sell the phone at.

 

[EverNap]

I agree but many people would rather buy from their carrier because of the additional support they can receive rather than buying from an online source. And let's face it, the only people that most care about carrier updates and bloatware are people like us that browse forums like these. Other customers, don't care about those things. I do agree, if you have to spend full price, just get it from HTC but I certainly understand why everyone wouldn't want to go that route. Everyone just doesn't care about the same things. And HTC is only doing what Apple has done. Sell their phone through the carrier and also an unlocked one that we can buy through them. It's not like HTC has done anything groundbreaking and Google probably skipped the LTE on Nexus because of the price they wanted to sell the phone at.

The support part is a good point. I wonder if those customers would buy an unlocked version from HTC if HTC had dedicated stores like Apple does.

 

[scorpiodsu]

The support part is a good point. I wonder if those customers would buy an unlocked version from HTC if HTC had dedicated stores like Apple does.

Agreed. And the thing is with Apple is that you don't have to buy the phone directly from them to get that support. Many people wouldn't like the idea of having to call HTC if they are having problems and need to send the phone back vs going to their local carrier store where they have been doing business for years and are comfortable with their processes. Just some things that some consider. It's just not cut and dry to everyone as unlocked vs carrier locked so the unlocked must be better. Yes in some ways and in other ways, depending on who you bought it from, it could not be good in other ways.

 

[aokusman1]

In the days of the plan treo on sprint, you could just walk into any sprint store, no matter where the phone came from, as long as the warranty date was still good, and exchange it if necessary. HTC support sucks, I know this for a fact. I bought the HTC one x from a US carriers store. The phone was missing the check for update option in settings. I called HTC to find out how I can update my phone and they could not give me an answer. Unbelievable.

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 2

 

[dmmarck]

That completely misses the point. There's also no guarantee that the unlock will work forever.

When there's a will there's a way .