October is Breast Cancer Awareness month and Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC recognizes the importance of the campaign to educate, protect, and save women’s lives from the dreaded disease.
As part of its social commitment, HTC has rolled out a pink model of its flagship smartphone, the HTC One M9, in the American smartphone retail market on October 7. HTC is making available the pink version of HTC One M9 for Americans initially through its US website, in the hope of contributing to people awareness about breast cancer and how to avoid it or prevent women from succumbing to such disease, notes the Phone Dog.
When HTC officially announced the HTC One M9 during the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2015 in Barcelona, Spain in March, the company did mention that their latest flagship smartphone will come in four different colors including silver, gunmetal gray, gold, and pink.
The first three colors have immediately made it to the retail markets upon their rollout in April, but the pink version was nowhere to be found. Apparently, HTC was just waiting for the right timing to launch it, and the Breast Cancer Awareness month this October seems to be the most fitting occasion to launch the model.
Two variants
The pink model of HTC One M9 comes in two variants as well. There is the regular pink model and there is also the pink one with a Breast Cancer Research Foundation ribbon on its back, but both handsets retail for $649, details the GSM Arena.
The pink model is being made available as a limited edition as it shall only be on offer up to October 31. Those who avail of the handset within the month will get $100 Google Play credit as well as a pink Dot View Ice case for free.
The HTC One M9 pink variants are compatible only with GSM carriers so they will not work with Sprint or Verizon Wireless.
HTC has not stated that it will donate part of the proceeds from the HTC One M9 pink model, but it did say that it is donating $25,000 to the noble work and cause of the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.
Marshmallow on the HTC One M9
Meanwhile, Google’s latest mobile operating system, the Android 6.0 Marshmallow, will be officially rolling out this week and Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC confirmed that it will be releasing the update to the HTC One M9 and two of its other high-end handset.
In addition to the HTC One M9, the Android 6.0 Marshmallow will also be coming to the HTC One M9+, and the HTC One M8, last year’s flagship smartphone of the Taiwanese handset maker.
And if the upcoming HTC One A9, also known as the HTC One Aero, is released before the end of the year as planned, it shall most likely be the fourth handset in the HTC roster to be confirmed for the Android 6.0 Marshmallow.
Google has remained true to its release pattern for its latest mobile operating system. After making the final preview of the Android 6.0 Marshmallow to its own line of Nexus devices, the search giant has seeded the software development kit to developers to test the latest OS on the current Nexus devices including the Nexus 5, the Nexus 6, the Nexus 9 and the Nexus Player.
After the developers are through with the firmware tests, the public rollout of the Android 6.0 Marshmallow to various smartphone models from the different handset makers shall commence.
Once the Android 6.0 Marshmallow rolls out to the Nexus devices, it is expected that the firmware update will be released to the latest smartphones and tablets of Samsung, Motorola, LG, and HTC before the rest of the Android phone makers get it.
The HTC One M9 came out as a disappointment to many critics, not because of its own doing, but because its predecessor, the HTC One M8, was already considered a perfect phone.