HTC One Google Edition confirmed; will hit Play Store on June 26

It’s time for Round 2 of HTC One vs Samsung Galaxy S4. Google’s Sundar Pichai, the head of Android, Chrome and Apps, took the stage at AllThingsD’s D11 conference with an HTC One. However, this was no regular HTC One as Pichai went on to reveal that a Google Edition for the Taiwanese company’s flagship will arrive on the Play Store on June 26 for $599.

HTC’s One and the Galaxy S4 are the biggest competition for each other when it comes to Android smartphones. And the ‘Nexus’ One will be a full $50 cheaper than the stock Android-running Samsung Galaxy S4, which will also be available on the same date on the Play Store. In terms of price and having seen the rave reviews (here’s ours) for the HTC One, this can be considered a great coup for the ailing Taiwanese smartphone maker. After suffering a bleak couple of years in terms of sales and brand perception, HTC can finally count the Google Edition One as a minor victory against Samsung, the leading smartphone maker in the world.

HTC One running stock Android

In terms of specs, the Google Edition smartphone won’t be terribly different from the device which was officially launched in India earlier this week. Of course, the one major difference is that the One will get the pure Android experience and consequently will be receiving software updates from Google as soon as they are ready to roll out. Version updates have been a major sore point in the past with HTC phones and this Google Edition phone will go a long way towards easing those pains.

HTC says that the special edition of the HTC One will come with a bootloader that “can be unlocked by standard method for “Nexus experience” devices.”