HTC Shoots For “Good Enough” At MWC 2014, Teases Big March 25th Reveal

Blink and you would have missed HTC Mobile World Congress announcements. The struggling phone maker unveiled two perfectly acceptable, perfectly boring mid-range phones and a Folding@home-ish smartphone app. Called “Power To Give”, the project is aimed at crowdsourcing spare smartphone CPU cycles to help cure diseases. Because why not.

But this isn’t all HTC has up its sleeve. HTC CEO Peter Chou teased that more is coming. During the company’s press conference, Chou repeatedly reminded attendees that it has an event coming up on March 25th. Don’t forget, m’kay. Hold out until March 25. That’s when the good stuff is coming (read: the next-gen HTC One).

HTC revealed the HTC Desire 816 (shown above) and Desire 610. Both liberally borrow the HTC One and HTC First’s styling, including front facing speakers, colorful casing and soft edges. The 816 sports a 5.5-inch display while the 610 uses a 4.7-inch screen.

Interestingly enough, the 816 is designed specifically for the China market, and HTC says the device is made to “reignite the mid-market.”

Neither handset will likely break sales records. In fact they’re rather underwhelming compared to other new handsets. But if the price is right, these mid-range phones could help HTC recover some lost market share in emerging and developing markets.

Pricing hasn’t been announced yet on these phones.

Also, don’t forget about March 25th.