The Promotional Price Of The HTC One A9 Ends

Rumors suggested that HTC was planning to release a smartphone in the second half of the year that would make up for the poor sales that their other devices had along the year. Then, we started getting some leaked pictures and specs that made it fit into the mid-range. HTC finally announced theOne A9 last week, the company took a different approach with the announcement and the phone itself. Instead of mentioning its internal specs, the company just focused on the overall design of the phone and the camera capabilities. They also mentioned the high-quality of the sound produced by the phone and a bunch of services that would be included such as the Uh-Oh protection plan and the fact that this phone would get updated really fast to newer versions of the Android OS.

So why the discrepancy? According to HTC, it has to do with its regional sales teams being able to price products independently. And if you're looking to get the A9 in the U.S. at that $399 sweet spot, you've got a little more than a week to do so.

Here's the word from HTC directly:

"The cost of the HTC One A9 is the same worldwide to all distributors and operator partners. For end consumers, HTC's sales regions are given the freedom to set prices and promotions as they see fit for local market needs. The One A9 price in the US is a very limited-time promotional offer for that region's online store, as well as select HTC-only franchise stores. The offer is a special promotional pre-sale and is expected to conclude once the One A9 is available on-shelf at major retail and distributor partners.

After the promotional pre-sale offer ends, the new price in the US at htc.com will be $499.99 beginning 12:01 a.m. on 11/7."

So, that's that. Come Nov. 7, the A9 becomes a little more expensive in the U.S. — but still not quite as tough a pill to swallow as elsewhere in the world.