Following a $160-million operating loss this past quarter, HTC CFO Chialin Chang said that his company would bounce back by cutting 15 percent of its workforce, and by releasing a “fashionable and trendy” new phone.
Trendy and fashionable in this case apparently means abandoning the unique design of the M9 for something that looks a lot like the iPhone 6. The image above comes courtesy of Steve Hemmerstoffer, showing what is reportedly the Taiwanese company’s next flagship device, the HTC A9.
Obviously, there’s always reason to be skeptical with leaks, especially one that looks so blatantly like a phone that’s already on the market, but given that this one comes from Hemmerstoffer, who has been accurate in the past, it looks like this is the phone HTC has decided to rest its future hopes on.
According to International Business Times, HTC has decided to name the colour configuration pictured above “tyrant gold”, likely a mistranslation from the original Chinese report. The Aero will also be available in dark grey.
On the specs front, the A9 is reportedly one of the first devices that will feature MediaTek’s new Helio X20 system-on-a-chip. Announced back in May, the X20 is one of the first 10-core SoCs to make it to market. It features a 2,4,4 core configuration that MediaTek claims is 30 percent more energy efficient than the competition.
The phone will reportedly be announced sometime in October, but is unlikely to come to North America anytime soon.
[source]Steve Hemmerstoffer[/source]
