HTC will release US developer version of HTC One
In a gesture of goodwill towards the Android developer community, HTC announced this morning that it will release a developer version of the upcoming HTC One, both SIM- and bootloader-unlocked. It will be sold in limited quantities unsubsidized and off-contract for $649, and should be available at the same time the regular HTC One is released in the United States
The developer version will be compatible with both T-Mobile and AT&T in the US, supporting GSM/GPRS/EDGE (850/900/1800/1900MHz), HSPA/WCDMA (850/1900/2100MHz), and LTE (700/850/AWS/1900MHz). While this hasn’t been officially confirmed, most likely the developer edition will not actually be S-OFF, but rather unlocked as if someone were to manually unlock the phone using HTCDev.
Indeed, I am happy to see HTC offer the device this way, but in all honesty, I believe every Android device should be shipped unlocked. I’m more interested in seeing whether or not this device will come with more access than the official unlocking process allows, but again, I suspect that this is very unlikely. If it still ships S-ON, then most people would probably be better off buying the device subsidized through a carrier and unlocking it themselves; after all, $649 is a large pill to swallow.
In other HTC One news, CNET is reporting that Verizon – notably absent from previous announcements – will in fact carry the HTC One, but only one or two months after it has already arrived on the other three major US carriers. The delay has been attributed to internal testing delays.
[HTC | CNET]
