The All New HTC One Will Be Available Immediately After Its March 25 Unveiling

HTC continues to do an absolutely terrible job of plugging leaks related to its upcoming HTC One flagship smartphone which replaces last year’s HTC One of the same name. Today, we learned the new model will go on sale immediately after it’s made official by HTC on March 25 at a special event in NYC, thanks to a leaked Carphone Warehouse release that went out a tad early.

The release was picked up by Engadget, and says that in the UK at least, eager buyers will be able to get at the new Android smartphone instantly, instead of having to wait a few weeks or months to order the latest gadget, as is typically the case. The Samsung Galaxy S5, which is arguably the top rival device for the HTC One, was announced at MWC in February but won’t ship until sometime in April, for instance.

HTC selling instantly beats Samsung to the punch, at least in a few markets (I suspect we’ll see that the UK isn’t the only place they embrace this strategy), and that’s one way to punch up in a market where you’re a perpetual underdog. Every year, smartphone buyers ready to upgrade have to make a bet on a single device, and if your flagship is out before another with similar (if not identical) internal specs, then it stands to reason you have a good chance to attract a decent amount of the early adopters.

The so-called ‘all new’ HTC One also has the advantage of inheriting some of the reputation of its predecessor, which was universally enjoyed by critics, and, according to many accounts, by users too, even if it didn’t break sales records for Android phones. Building on that reputation, HTC stands a better chance of translating any remaining momentum earned for its previous flagship to the new one with a quick launch.