An HTC One smartphone customized to be “Google’s take on Android” will make its US debut on June 26 at a price of $599, the head of Android, Chrome and Google Apps said at an AllThingsD conference in California.
Google executive Sundar Pichai said “It’s a great device,” during an on-stage interview.
Google Edition handsets by Taiwan-based HTC will be compatible with carriers AT&T and T-Mobile.
Pichai made the disclosure a day after Motorola Mobility head Dennis Woodside said on the same stage that the company’s was preparing to release its first smartphone since being bought by Google.
The smartphone would be called Moto X and be made in a facility near Fort Worth, Texas, Woodside said.
“It is the first smartphone that is going to be built in the United States,” Woodside said, noting that the plant would employ about 2,000 people by August.
“We think that it is going to allow us to innovate and iterate that much faster.”