According to Forbes, HTC will be launching a fitness tracker and not a smartwatch as originally reported by Bloomberg earlier this week. The source of Forbes, who works closely with HTC, confirmed that the Taiwanese OEM will be releasing a fitness wearable in partnership with Under Armour and not a smartwatch as expected and rumored. However, he could not provide any other details about the upcoming wearable. The source also provided some information about HTC’s upcoming flagship — the One M9. He confirmed that most of the leaks floating on the Internet about the device are correct and said that it will only be an “incremental” upgrade over the M8 with most of the major changes being made to Sense 7. HTC is giving Blinkfeed a major update in Sense 7 and will borrow a few cues from Google Now and Windows Live Tiles. The new version of Blinkfeed will provide users with recommendations on where to go, when they should leave for an appointment and more. The Taiwanese OEM is also “working on more partnerships” to further improve the Blinkfeed experience. Specs wise, the source confirmed that the One M9 will ship with a 5-inch 1080p display and sport “the latest” processor from Qualcomm. It will also ship with 3GB RAM, a microSD card slot, front-facing BoomSound speakers with 5.1 Dolby Surround Sound audio and LTE Cat.6 network support. For the rear camera, HTC has decided to ditch its UltraPixel sensor and instead move towards a larger 20MP sensor that will also be able to record videos in 4K resolution. However, the company will make use of an UltraPixel sensor for the front camera, though its resolution is still undecided. The handset will also come with camera features that we have already seen on the Desire EYE, including dual photos, Selfie mode and more. As for the design, the One M9 will come with a “three-tone metal” design and will only be slightly thicker than the One M8 at 9.64mm. The source explained that HTC is pretty happy with the design of the One M8/M9 and is just “tweaking it to make it perfect.” HTC will also be launching the Dot View 2 case alongside the One M9. The handset will be unveiled on March 1st at MWC in Barcelona, Spain.
