HTC One Release Pushed Back to March 29 .2013 - Still No News on U.S.

As smartphone buyers eagerly awaited the midpoint of the month as the date when the HTC One would be available in stores, a few disconcerting rumors emerged, particularly those concerning low yield rates of the handset’s UltraPixel camera modules.  Now it looks like the rumors may actually be true, according to a leading U.K. retailer and HTC itself.Earlier today, Clove had announced that the HTC One, originally expected in the market by March 15, will not be out for another two weeks.  Instead, the retailer will receive its stock for the device on March 29.  Over in the United States, it wasn’t sure whether this announcement will have any bearing on the mid-late March release date expectations most customers and experts have at the moment.   But it might, if you read on to the second half of this report, which may mean bad news for consumers from other parts of the world, including the U.S.

A breaking report from SlashGear added shortly after Clove’s announcement that an HTC representative had told the reputable tech site that “We will start fulfilling pre-orders by end March in certain markets and will roll out to more markets as we approach April.”  It would stand to reason that the “certain markets” being referred to by HTC would mean the U.K., and some parts of Asia that were supposed to receive the One in mid-March as well.  The other markets pertained to later on in HTC’s statement may include the U.S., as HTC is one of those companies that typically focuses on Europe and Asia before the U.S. more so than others.

For HTC, this isn’t exactly the way to get back into the flow of things after reporting three-year financial lows and being the focus of rumors that UltraPixel camera module issues may delay the One’s release.  The One, after all, was heavily hyped ahead of its February 19 announcement, and is considered potentially the best of all flagship or “hero” phones HTC has released to date.