HTC One M9's Likeness to Earlier Models Explained by Firm's Design Chief

HTC took the wraps of its new One flagship, the One M9 at the Mobile World Congress. While the handset maintained the One design philosophy, it certainly brought some changes too when compared to its predecessor. Additionally, a report has claimed that HTC is gearing up to replace the Nuance's Swype with TouchPal as the company's new default input engine on upcoming devices.

(Also see: HTC One M9 First Impressions: Do the Evolution)

HTC's Industrial design chief, Claude Zellweger in an interview to The Verge talked about the design philosophy of the new flagship smartphone. Zellweger started off saying that the One M9 might look remarkably similar to the HTC One M8 but that was an intentional move by the Taiwanese company, saying the firm wanted to "build a lineage" to ensure the product was easily recognisable as part of the One family.

(Also see: Nine Things You Need to Know About the HTC One M9)

Zellweger explained that the company has combined the sharp and industrial design of the HTC One (M7) and easy to hold frame of the HTC One (M8) into the new handset. He also stressed that for the One M9 the firm has focused on details that set it apart from its predecessor. He also stressed that the One M9 takes twice as much time to manufacture than the previous two flagships, at 300 minutes.

On being asked about the trend of protruding camera, Zellweger explained that the company was ready to make sacrifices to include a "larger and powerful camera" on the One M9. Replying to similar camera bump found on the iPhone 6 and Samsung Galaxy S6, he replied "our bump is minimal and it's elegant."

This year's Mobile World Congress 2015 saw some major handset manufacturers unveiling new flagship handsets such as the HTC One M9 and the Samsung Galaxy S6.

In other news, Engadget reports that HTC is changing the default keyboard on its forthcoming devices including the One M9. The report cites a Shanghai-based keyboard developer and an internal source close to the matter who verified TouchPal's announcement. So far there has no announcement from either HTC or TouchPal as of now.

For uninitiated, TouchPal is an alternative software input method for mobile devices, designed and developed by CooTek.