If you've ever been to an electronics market in certain parts of Asia, you'll be familiar with iPhone knockoffs running Android. Within weeks of a new Apple device, you can get a gray market iPhone lookalike running Android Jelly Bean or something, for a third of the cost of the real thing. But we never thought we'd see a 'real' manufacturer take this approach. Until now
If I were living under a rock, and came across the One A9 on holiday, I would absolutely believe it was a gray market ripoff. I can just imagine coming home to tell my friends, “Hey, check out the fake HTC iPhone I bought,” only to be informed HTC itself actually put it out.
We can lay some blame for this odd decision on the exodus of HTC designers – Scott Croyle in 2014, and Jonah Becker in 2015 – and presume the design department at HTC is full of empty desks following their departure. Or we could put it down to a last-ditch effort to get someone, anyone, to buy an HTC device.
But what if this is actually the best decision HTC has made in a long time?
If I were living under a rock, and came across the One A9 on holiday, I would absolutely believe it was a gray market ripoff. I can just imagine coming home to tell my friends, “Hey, check out the fake HTC iPhone I bought,” only to be informed HTC itself actually put it out.
We can lay some blame for this odd decision on the exodus of HTC designers – Scott Croyle in 2014, and Jonah Becker in 2015 – and presume the design department at HTC is full of empty desks following their departure. Or we could put it down to a last-ditch effort to get someone, anyone, to buy an HTC device.
But what if this is actually the best decision HTC has made in a long time?
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