Is HTC developing a Vive-branded smartphone?

A recently discovered video suggests HTC may announce a Vive-branded virtual reality smartphone at its upcoming January 12th event.

Notable mobile tipster Evan Blass found the video and posted it to Twitter this past Friday. In the video, the narrator laments how all modern phones look the same — HTC, it should be noted, helped pioneer the unibody metal and antenna lines design, which Apple then popularized with the iPhone 6.

After showcasing several customizable smartphones that feature fabric finishes as well as unique paint jobs, a phone that features the company’s Vive branding is briefly seen in one of the final frames of the video.

HTC 2017? pic.twitter.com/ppONWlT5Mr

— Evan Blass (@evleaks) January 8, 2017

In his usual terse tweeting style, Blass doesn’t explicitly call out the Vive smartphone, nor does he mention any details pertaining to the other devices shown during the video’s minute-and-a-half runtime. Moreover, while Blass has an impeccable record, there’s good reason to be skeptical of the video’s authenticity.

First, the video itself is not new. It was uploaded to Vimeo this past June.

Second, it comes from Shaun Saperstein, a designer at HTC. Visit Saperstein’s website and you’ll find a lot of other video content. For the most part, the videos showcase Saperstein’s work and design sensibilities. It’s likely then that he created this video (and the second one, linked below) for that same purpose.

Remember the HTC Ocean? (https://t.co/q5ghm3vQ8Z) pic.twitter.com/GtpqowETjM

— Evan Blass (@evleaks) January 8, 2017

That said, since publications like Android Authority and 9to5Google published their articles on the video, it has been pulled from Vimeo and Saperstien’s website.

What do you think of the video? Will HTC announce a Vive-branded device on Thursday?

[source]Twitter[/source][via]9to5Google[/via]