HTC One M9 shipments delayed due to software upgrade

Taipei, March 16 (CNA) Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC Corp. (宏達電) has delayed sales of its flagship One M9 device in its home market that was originally scheduled to begin Monday due to software upgrade.

HTC confirmed the delay in an e-mail reply to CNA, saying that it is working on providing "the latest version of software" for the One M9 and will make the phone available in Taiwan "as soon as possible".

The company did not give any new dates but some would-be buyers of the latest HTC flagship model mentioned a time frame of a few days to two weeks.

Some pre-ordering consumers said Sunday afternoon on Taiwanese 3C social network website Mobile01 that they had unexpectedly received text messages from HTC stores, which said shipments of the 32GB One M9 will be postponed from Monday to March 20.

The 64GB model of the flagship HTC smartphone will be delayed longer until the end of this month, said the messages, which did not provide other details. One of the Mobile01 users said without citing sources that the delay was due to "software issues" that could lead to boot failure.

The Taoyuan-based company said on March 12 that its One M9 will go on sale in Taiwan on March 16, making its home market the first in the world to sell the newest iteration of its flagship model.

The One M9 will be initially available in three colors -- dual-tone silver and rose gold, single-tone gunmetal grey and single-tone gold -- and priced at NT$21,900 (US$692) for a 32GB model and NT$23,900 for a 64GB model.

(By Jeffrey Wu)ENDITEM/jc