HTC To Hold An Event On Jan. 12; Teases A New Product Just 'For U'

HTC just recently sent out invitations for an event on Jan. 12, 2017, possibly teasing a product launch. The event will notably take place just a few days after the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2017 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

HTC’s invite is quite minimal and mysterious. It doesn’t really say what kind of product the company will be launching, only stating that it has something “For U.” The stylized “U” is used as the C on HTC’s logo as well, as pointed out by The Verge.

Since HTC isn’t giving any hints as to what it has in store, speculations are now brewing on what product/s it will be debuting at the Jan. 12 event. It’s possible that the Taiwanese manufacturer will finally reveal the much-rumored HTC X10, the successor to this year’s HTC One X9, according to GSM Arena. The device is rumored to come with a 5.5-inch 1080p full HD display, an octa-core MediaTek Helio P10 chip with 3GB of RAM and a 13MP camera.

The problem with this is that HTC just launched a new smartphone earlier this month, the HTC Bolt. Revealing another major smartphone might not be a wise decision for HTC, so debuting the X10 so soon appears to be unlikely.

Since HTC’s event takes place after CES 2017 and about a month before the Mobile World Congress, its new product may not be a smartphone at all. It’s possible that the company will be launching new wearables or even a new VR headset for smartphones.

HTC has been partners with Under Armour since 2014, but it hasn’t really produced a compelling product yet. Earlier this year HTC released the HealthBox, a bundle of health-related gadgets that included a fitness band, a connected scale and a chest-mounted heart-rate monitor. The HealthBox never got much attention and it just left many wondering what other products will the HTC/UA partnership will bring forth.

Back in October, an HTC smartwatch was leaked on the web. The most significant thing about it is that it also carried the Under Armour logo. It wasn’t definitively proven if this was an upcoming product or just an old prototype for a canceled product. HTC’s Jan. 12 event might be a perfect place to debut this HTC/UA smartwatch that may run Google’s Android Wear 2.0, according to Android Authority.

HTC also released this year the Vive, an advanced virtual reality headset for high-end PCs. It’s possible that the company is now focusing on a much more affordable VR product next year. It’s being speculated that HTC might debut a VR headset for smartphones, something that’s akin to Samsung’s Gear VR. If that’s not the case, HTC could simply announce upcoming new development on the current Vive VR headset -- a new set of controllers perhaps?