What about the HTC One (M8) DON'T you like?

[madlaw1071]

Re: What about the M8 DON'T you like?

A handful of tech sites? More like every mobile site, because they all praised it. Also, the phone won phone of the year/best smartphone at things like MWC and phonedog. That, honestly, is probably what put the phone at the top of many people's lists (obviously not enough). That unique android design was very important for the limited success of that phone, without it it probably wouldn't have sold much at all.
Beating Samsung isn't a battle of phones btw, it is a battle of advertising. That's why I said the dual-camera is a much better advertising point than a 4MP camera. You also TOTALLY ignored the point of my post which is to tell you that putting a 13-16MP on the camera isn't enough, and that it HAS to take risks to get over on competition.

So we agree the One was a commercial flop?

Also, do you have any facts to support your claim that the only reason why the S4 outsold the One by huge margins is because of advertising? I will review any such evidence with an open mind. HTC had HIGH PROFILE ad campaigns featuring one of the biggest stars in the world (Robert Downey, Jr) and it didnt move the needle for the One.

IMO, HTC focused on all the wrong gimmicks with the One. Metal? most people use cases. UltraPixel? The pics lacked detail and the cameras were defective. Boomsound? Most folks use headphones. Blinkfeed? Wasn't customizable and not nearly as good as Flipboard.

Hey, I own three Ones. I enjoy the hell out of it and will prolly have a New One but I think it's an exercise in oversimplification to solely blame advertising for the lack of success for HTC.

 

[madlaw1071]

Re: What about the M8 DON'T you like?

The only reason it won over those people was because of the anaemic marketing on the part of HTC, if people actually knew about it, then the metal casing would make it a success

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Huh? HTC had a HUGE marketing campaign featuring Iron Man himself, Robert Downey Jr. They spent millions and the phone didn't sell. Maybe the purchasing public just doesnt care about metal since they put cases on their phones.

 

[Habiib]

Re: What about the M8 DON'T you like?

So we agree the One was a commercial flop?

Also, do you have any facts to support your claim that the only reason why the S4 outsold the One by huge margins is because of advertising? I will review any such evidence with an open mind. HTC had HIGH PROFILE ad campaigns featuring one of the biggest stars in the world (Robert Downey, Jr) and it didnt move the needle for the One.

IMO, HTC focused on all the wrong gimmicks with the One. Metal? most people use cases. UltraPixel? The pics lacked detail and the cameras were defective. Boomsound? Most folks use headphones. Blinkfeed? Wasn't customizable and not nearly as good as Flipboard.

Hey, I own three Ones. I enjoy the hell out of it and will prolly have a New One but I think it's an exercise in oversimplification to solely blame advertising for the lack of success for HTC.

Haha.. where do I being on this one? Fallacy much?

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[ErnstMach]

Huh? HTC had a HUGE marketing campaign featuring Iron Man himself, Robert Downey Jr. They spent millions and the phone didn't sell. Maybe the purchasing public just doesnt care about metal since they put cases on their phones.

"Huge marketing campaign" that flopped. They're spending millions in the wrong places, thus people don't know about the phone in the first place. I didnt see a single one of their ads and the only reason I learned of it is because I read tech blogs. The point here is that the phone was a commercial disappointment, not because it was unpopular or bad, but because HTC's marketing was abysmal, regardless of the millions they paid for RDJ.

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[madlaw1071]

Re: What about the M8 DON'T you like?

"Huge marketing campaign" that flopped. They're spending millions in the wrong places, thus people don't know about the phone in the first place. I didnt see a single one of their ads and the only reason I learned of it is because I read tech blogs. The point here is that the phone was a commercial disappointment, not because it was unpopular or bad, but because HTC's marketing was abysmal, regardless of the millions they paid for RDJ.

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It's your opinion that they spent millions in the wrong places but maybe they did the ads right but the phone just didn't hit the sweet spot for the purchasing public. We simply don't know.

 

[ErnstMach]

Re: What about the M8 DON'T you like?

It's your opinion that they spent millions in the wrong places but maybe they did the ads right but the phone just didn't hit the sweet spot for the purchasing public. We simply don't know.

So why don't we both stop plugging useless opinions on these forms then?

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[madlaw1071]

Re: What about the M8 DON'T you like?

So why don't we both stop plugging useless opinions on these forms then?

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We can but the OP asked for opinion and we both gave it At least we are respectful towards each other.

 

[Habiib]

Re: What about the M8 DON'T you like?

One thing that was stated before is that the One was HTC's best selling device in the company's history. It even outsold the 2012 flagship devices. They did have problems meeting demand and had to increase production as a result.

HTC does have an inconvenient truth stacked against them. They are mostly a mobile device manufacturer. Their product portfolio is not as vast as Samsung, Sony, LG, Apple, and other major manufacturers. Before anyone says that people know who HTC is, I suggest you look at the global rankings of brand names. HTC isn't even in the top 20.

The million dollar question at this point for me, is what can HTC do to get the buying public to recognize their branding and consider their products for purchase? Keep in mind they'd be fighting against the Samsung experience kiosk and Apple kiosk in some brick and mortar stores. Also, if employees are more likely to recommend an Apple or Samsung product to a less informed consumer, there's not much HTC can do in that scenario either.

I'm convinced that the HTC One could have matched the S4 spec for spec and feature for feature and it still would not have come close to the S4's numbers. If that were the case, then what would some blame the relatively lower sales numbers on?

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[Citizen Coyote]

Re: What about the M8 DON'T you like?

So far in this thread I've learned that people don't like the M8's bezel or HTC's marketing campaign. For a phone that has yet to be officially announced I find all of this rather amusing, but then this is a fan forum so there you go. Personally, the things I may not like about it are things that haven't been leaked as far as I know, like battery life. At this point that's one of my biggest concerns with a phone. Could I please have a nice phone that will last all day with strong use and isn't the size of a small tablet (and isn't beholden to Verizon)? Is that really too much to ask, phone manufacturers?

 

[Habiib]

Re: What about the M8 DON'T you like?

I don't like the fact that I've not seen the POGO pins on any of the leaked devices. I loved how the One Max could use that flip cover with the integrated battery and was going that would be introduced on the new One as well.

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[STARGATE]

Re: What about the M8 DON'T you like?

Let's assume that none of us like the bezel (we don't). What else?

In the video he said it was 4.7" yet again, I'd like 5" which could be achieved without the black bezel lol

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Agree! ☺

Sent From Inside The TARDIS in a Galaxy S4 Away!

 

[GrooveRite]

Re: What about the M8 DON'T you like?

Can people who have last years One kindly explain to me whats going on with the camera and software? I've been coming across many negative remarks about both these things. I can only suspect that HTC will address these problems or not with this years version.

 

[sniffs]

Re: What about the M8 DON'T you like?

What I dont like is they didn't shrink the black HTC bar at the bottom.. and that theoretically, they could add those same onscreen buttons to the device we have now and turn off the functionality of the current buttons via a FW update.

 

[vamp464]

Re: What about the M8 DON'T you like?

If the power button ends up on top, me no likey especially on a phone that's got some height to it. Just a tad trickier for one-handed use. More leaks please!

 

[ErnstMach]

If the power button ends up on top, me no likey especially on a phone that's got some height to it. Just a tad trickier for one-handed use. More leaks please!

The video leak shows a top-mounted power button. Pretty sure they wouldn't change the design with less than a month to go unfortunately

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[teamnowak]

Re: What about the M8 DON'T you like?

Everybody's going to say bezel, but another think that stands out to me is the build design. It's too curvy in my opinion. Plus the finish on the metal makes it look a tad garish if you ask me.

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I may get skewered but I hate the metal they used on the first one. It seems chintzy to me. And looks "old." Don't really know how else to describe it, but I just don't like it at all.

 

[Aquila]

Re: What about the M8 DON'T you like?

Is it somewhat obvious that a huge part of Samsung's mobile R&D is redundant across multiple product lines (the Exynos processor reused in phones, tablets, chromebooks and some low end laptops, possibly other gadgets), etc with other components, logic boards, etc. that are spread out sunk costs rather than fixated as with HTC? Not to mention that they have a profitable resale division that borrows a lot of the same development at the full expense of other companies... Samsung and HTC could sell the exact same number of phones with the exact same components and it would be profitable for Samsung and lose money for HTC.

Also, why do we assume HTC and Samsung want to compete with each other? Does HTC want to lose even more money selling that many phones? Or find a way to do better than breaking even before starting sustainable growth? Samsung certainly couldn't care less about HTC.

 

[VidJunky]

Re: What about the M8 DON'T you like?

Wow reading through the comments it seems there is some heat to this question. As for what I didn't like bezel for one, the black trim around the screen for two, more blink feed for three, as another poster said something we don't know is battery size and endurance for four, and the on screen buttons for five.

Now what did I like? I liked the more rounded look of the sides and back, the screen seemed really bright and possibly a tad more clear, but to that we don't know what the resolution was either, the three button setup, the addition of the SD card, although even with that addition memory is so cheap why cut back from the original, the placement of the power button, which I was pretty sure was on the side above the volume rocker unless that was the SIM slot?, and that they didn't make it too much bigger than the One we have now, and a slightly raised volume rocker, it's pretty hard to find reliably as is.

What was I unsure about? The dual camera, unless they are offering both a higher rez and low rez camera for different lighting situations I'm not sure what the point would be, the placement of the headphone jack at the bottom with the power jack, it's not that I care that much maybe for a dock that would be convenient to tie a speaker system in but it could also make it a bit more awkward to use if you were doing both charging and listening but IDK.

 

[zinedine]

Re: What about the M8 DON'T you like?

I hope the led light is not situated in the speaker grill again.

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[madlaw1071]

Re: What about the M8 DON'T you like?

I hope the led light is not situated in the speaker grill again.

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and let's hope it's customizable.