HTC One's US smartphone launch delayed until 'end of April'

HTC announced Friday that its well-received HTC One smartphone won't go on sale in the U.S. until sometime "before the end of April," according to an emailed statement.

While British, German and Taiwanese retailers will begin selling the phone next week, the rest of Europe, North America and "most of Asia-Pacific" won't see the highly anticipated handset until weeks later.

[ MORE MOBILE RELEASES: BlackBerry 10 to hit key US market Friday ]

"HTC has seen unprecedented demand for and interest in the new HTC One, and the care taken to design and build it is evidenced in early reviews," the statement said in part.

A U.S. release date had not been confirmed, but many expected the One to go on sale before the end of the month, in the interest of getting to market well before competitor Samsung's Galaxy S 4. That device is coming to the U.K. near the end of April, but HTC will doubtless hope that the U.S. release date -- which has not been made public -- will come much later.

Forrester analyst David Johnson characterizes the delay in getting the HTC One to American consumers as being due to "classic supply chain issues."

HTC, he says, doesn't have the same advantages as larger competitors like Samsung, which can do more of their component sourcing in-house. Rather, smaller firms must go through third parties for their parts.

"They're all going to have dependence on the same sorts of suppliers. This creates choke points," Johnson says. "In this case it could've been something specific to that phone, like they used the same manufacturer for the bezel rings as somebody else."

Email Jon Gold at jgold@nww.com and follow him on Twitter at @NWWJonGold.

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