Sources claim HTC One Google Edition to land in limited Quantities

Google Edition devices are starting look like the next trend that manufacturers will be shooting for. We all saw the Google Edition Galaxy S4 at Google I/O. While many weren’t to excited about the $650 price tag that was attached to it, the device does have a place in the world. It offers Android users and lovers another device that stock without the need to root, hack or mod their carrier branded version. It also allows Google to push updates out directly to the devices as well. Cutting out that delay between releases, manufacturer branding and carrier branding injections.  Rumors started flying around at that time that HTC would be producing a Google Edition HTC One as well. Apparently a well-known source has tipped off Pocket-Lint with some more details.

While the source didn’t offer up any particulars, like a date or price point, they did offer up some info on how many will likely be available. Stating that the current plan is for about 1% Google Edition devices of the total HTC One sales numbers. Talks put the HTC One at selling around 5 million units to date, so doing some math puts that at around 50,000 HTC One Google Edition devices to be produced and sold.

We can think of a handful of people who would love to get their hands on a Google Edition HTC One, but we aren’t sure how well this will all play out. Is it worth the money to get a Google Edition device that isn’t a Nexus? Is this all just live field trial to see if it generates enough interest for Google to and the OEMs to start putting out various stock Android devices for users to choose from? I remember a rumor sometime last year that the Nexus 4 wouldn’t be the only Nexus phone released. Turned out to be the tablet line of course. I would love to see each manufacturer work with Google to bring a stock experience of each of their flagship devices to the Play Store, so long as the pricing came down a bit.

Other talks say we should have an announcement about this phone in just a week or so. Seemingly being confirmed by plenty of notable tech enthusiasts such as Russel Holly, Paul O’Brien and @LlabTooFeR. Will you be hovering over the Play Store, or where ever it might be sold, hitting F5 to be one of the elite owners?

Via AndroidHeadlines & AndroidCentral