HTC's Next Flagship Gets Launch Date

The successor to the much-loved HTC One will make its debut in New York and London on March 25.

HTC sent out invitations for the flagship device's debut. Like last year's event, the HTC One's successor's debut will be in New York and London with New York being the designated main site for the event. Though the device has yet to be given an official name, it has been referred to by its codename, M8, for quite some time. There is a lot riding on the M8 with HTC's sales and profits continuing to plunge.

 The HTC One was well-regarded and won critical praise at its launch but it fell short to the hype surrounding Samsung's Galaxy S4. Early leaks of the M8 seem very similar to HTC's current flagship with only minor tweaks and refinement to its predecessor's design as well as some software changes.

Samsung plans to launch its next flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S5, at the Mobile World Congress event this year, so HTC will have to work to make sure its flagship phone doesn't fall under Samsung's shadow again. Instead of launching the HTC One's successor prior to MWC 2014 like it did with the HTC One, HTC plans to wait out the MWC hype and launch its flagship smartphone after the event. HTC will have a presence at the Mobile World Congress next week but the M8 will not make an appearance. 

HTC is expected to talk about its expansion into lower-end products at MWC 2014 and may touch on how the M8's launch will be different from the HTC One's.

Photo credit: John Karakatsanis via Flickr