HTC has confirmed plans to launch six or seven new phones in 2017, but the so-called ‘HTC 11’ won’t be amongst them.
In an interview with Engadget, a senior HTC executive revealed that we can expect plenty of new phones from the company this year. Chialin Chang, President of Smartphone and Connected Devices at HTC, told the tech site that there would be “six or seven” handsets launching in 2017, two of which were announced in January: the HTC U Ultra and HTC U play. Some of these new devices will be peddled under the existing ‘Desire’ brand, too.
But most interestingly, Chang also confirmed that we wouldn’t see the HTC 11 this year, as the report explains: “When asked whether there will be an ‘HTC 11’, the exec simply said it won’t be named as such this year, so there’s a good chance that HTC is still committed to a true flagship device for 2017.”
The HTC 11 is the long-rumoured sequel to the HTC 10, and was expected to be HTC’s flagship smartphone for 2017. However, Chang’s comments don’t refute the existence of a new flagship, but simply the ‘HTC 11’ name itself. The most likely scenario is that HTC hopes to rebrand its core smartphone lineup; ‘HTC 11’ does sound a little clunky, after all.
HTC hasn’t been afraid of mixing up its naming strategy in the past. The first of its current line of flagships was called the HTC One, and was subsequently amended by fans to become the HTC One M7, thanks to the launch of the HTC One M8 and HTC One M9, which were eventually followed by last year’s HTC 10. So what will we get in 2017? We’ve got no idea.
The good news is that we may not have to wait too long to find an answer. HTC typically announces a new flagship phone around March/April, to compete with rival offerings from Samsung and LG, both of which opt for February/March launch timeframes.
We’re not entirely sure what to expect from the HTC 11 – or whatever it will be called – save for a high likelihood that it will carry Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 835 chip.
