Quite frankly, when I wrote the two posts about the M9 leaks this week, the main thing on my mind was shock at HTC for reusing the same design. The Taiwanese business has, as many said, always been a “design” company that focuses on aesthetics to make up for the fact that it’s not the most popular, most desired, or most anything. The design of the M7 and M8 were praised around the world and truly stood out in a time when Samsung was still bent on plastic. Heck, even the (in my opinion) silly HTC Re “periscope” looks unique for what it is, though I’d never buy or seek to use one.

I had both the M7 and M8 for some time and truly found the latter to be fantastic to hold and behold. It was one of those products where you don’t want to put a case on it and often just stare at and admire while waiting for a train or such, thinking “this is really nice”. The M8 didn’t release here in Japan and thus many people asked over the months what phone I was using and expressed a desire to buy one were it a domestic sale. Suffice to say, there is nothing wrong with the design of the One M8, at least in my book. But for me, there is something wrong with HTC reusing it for 2015. The problem is largely based on the perceived value of the product itself, and in the fact that HTC simply pales in comparison to a following anywhere in the same galaxy as Apple.

On Apple and the iPhone “S” installments:

Everyone knows, and often teases, that Apple is on a 2-year product design cycle when it comes to iPhones. Every new number begets a second year with an “S” tacked on and almost exclusively internal changes as opposed to cosmetic (i.e. design) ones. While the original culprit, the 3S, was basically accepted due to it being the early days of the product, the iPhone 4S on the other hand, was met with a large degree of initial disgust. Yet it sold better than all other iPhones. The 5S had the same thing, though everyone knew it was going to happen, and again it sold better than all previous devices. In trying to examine why this is, I have came up with 3 reasons why Apple can get away with this:

1. Apple has managed to provide a “legitimate” reason to buy an “S” product. The 3S was exponentially faster and more powerful than the 3G, which allowed everything to work much better. The 4s had Siri which for some, was a major feature, and the 5s had the iTouch fingerprint sensor (and dual flash). Especially with the 5s, the product took on an entirely new level of functionality with the ability to unlock your password-protected device with literally just the placement of your fingertip. Android fans might seek to detract from it, but trust me: the thing works and saves time. Something that I can’t say holds true of any of Samsung’s efforts last year.

2. Apple is able to ensure that people on a 2-year contract won’t feel “out of the loop” by having missed something. While many of us enthusiasts change phones at the drop of a hat, the vast, vast majority of consumers don’t. They stay locked to their carrier and contract. One sure-fire way to annoy customers is to quickly release a new product and make the existing customers feel outraged and angry for being stuck with theirs. (Look at Sony customers and the Xperia Z/Z2/Z3).

Apple’s release schedule ensures that if you get an iPhone 6, you won’t need to “hate” the company for an even better looking 6S coming out this year. This is doubly true for those who buy the iPhone 6 just months or weeks before the launch of the 6S.

3. Apple has truly loyal customers who will buy anything and everything it puts out. They won’t care if it looks exactly the same so long as it’s new, it’s hard to find, and it’s chic.

Why HTC can’t get away with “pulling an Apple”:

Given that many people who considered or purchased the M8 might have been put-off by the Duo Camera, I will concede that the possibility of a standard, 20-megapixel unit on the rear could be seen as a legitimate hardware upgrade for some. I will also concede that should my second argument be true, HTC’s decision to retain the same design would allow those with the M8 to feel comfortable knowing their device isn’t “old”. It’s the third reason that becomes the problem though: I suspect that HTC has very few die-hard fans left at this point, having burned so many bridges with poor OS updates in the past. That’s not to say that it doesn’t have fans mind you, just that the number simply pales in comparison to that of Apple, or even Samsung.

So what we have here, is HTC apparently deciding to release the same phone as last year, with better hardware components. The M9 is, for lack of better words, the M8S. While I’ve already suggested that there was nothing wrong with the M8 to necessitate a new design, I do foresee a few problems with this decision:

1. Samsung is planning something very dramatic with the Galaxy S6. Rumors upon rumors suggest that the company is going to totally redesign the phone this year, and there are countless reports of a metal body and recently, even of a glass back. By using the same design as last year, HTC has instantly shot itself in the proverbial foot as far as aesthetics go: it’s been there, done that as opposed to uncharted territory.

2. The M9 will be confusing to customers. Consider that any given mainstream owner might not know their M8 is called the M8, if they even know its called the One. Assuming there are enough people who simply say “I have an HTC”, or better yet, “I have an Android” and don’t know even the manufacturer, the M9 will be, on first glance, exactly what they already have. While this may be a very minor point, when you think about new customers trying to choose between the M8 and M9 with the former being much cheaper, it would seemingly make little sense for the average customer to go with the new hardware on the sole basis of it being “new” when it looks the same and costs more.

3. HTC will really need to include some major internal differentiation to substantiate M8 users upgrading the hardware. On the contrary, all rumors indicate the screen will still be 1080p as opposed to QHD, and the phone will still retain the “useless” HTC logo off-centering the screen. A 20 megapixel camera would be nice should that pan out, but is a camera and CPU boost enough for most customers (especially those on-contract) to upgrade? I’m not quite sure.

I almost feel as if HTC let the ball drop here. It could be that, as others suggested, the company’s being back-in-black means it doesn’t want to spend lots of cash on new R&D when it already has a highly praised product. It could also be that the company simply didn’t have the ability to make the new design it wanted (either via technical issues or cost related ones). Something is definitely up however, as the idea of HTC, of all companies, reusing the same design for a second year is just plain bizarre. Granted the M7 and M8 weren’t so different from each other, but the M8 still looked refined and polished enough to (for me at least) be viewed as a different yet superior-looking product.

Now it’s your turn

You’ve heard from our community members and Team AA, now it’s your turn. What do you think of the idea of HTC essentially utilizing the same case with the M9 as we saw with the M8?

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