Once upon a time a relevant and profitable mobile industry protagonist, HTC finds itself at a crossroads where cuts must be made and product rosters streamlined for survival purposes. The financially struggling Taiwanese company no longer affords to throw everything against a wall and see what sticks, but a wearable presence might be essential for the prosperity of any tech outfit going forward.
With the Grip fitness tracker likely DOA, and that recently uncovered Bluetooth-enabled “smart scale” not exactly screaming money maker, the question is will we ever see HTC take a chance on a “One Watch”, possibly powered by Android Wear?
The answer, at least according to legendary Twitter tipster @evleaks, is apparently a definite yes, and a commercial launch could go down sooner than you expect. Namely, as early as February 2016, which is when we’re also expecting a radically redesigned, vastly improved One M9 smartphone sequel to break cover.
If both the M10, aka O2, handheld and “Halfbeak” timepiece hit worldwide stores before spring, a comeback of sorts for HTC is still possible, although it all clearly depends on the execution. The One Watch must take a few design cues from One-series phones, sport a circular body, and either trump the Samsung Gear S2 as far as connectivity goes, or target athletes with advanced health-monitoring functions a la the Microsoft Band 2.