[Galaxy S 4 General] BarryH_GEG:
It appears you're not alone based on this thread's current poll results. Granted it's by no means scientific, and the results would be different if it was on the One forum, but those two things do seem to matter.

HTC's a very strange company. Their teetering on the abyss financially yet, rather than embrace the market leader's proven formula, they continue to go their own way. The One for China has an SD card slot. Not offering it globally saves them $10-20 a device. There's absolutely no logical or functional reason for them to have dropped the third capacitive button other than wanting to be "unique." If they wanted to be unique they should have adopted on screen controls which are the Google standard and the One would be the only non-Nexi to offer it. The 4.7" vs. 5" display is kind of questionable but no one here's mentioned so maybe it's not. The fact the insanely annoying three dot menu is back for settings amazes me. Especially when it wastes real estate on an already smaller display. It annoyed the crap out of One X owners and HTC corrected it. The DNA launched with it and then they corrected it. Now the One's launched with it. Uhm, OK?

Things they've nailed are the One's design and construction which leverages what people have always thought of when they think about HTC - beautiful premium phones. Focusing on sound with real improvements (vs. "Beats" which was an equalizer setting) including amplified dual speakers along with finally putting a respectable battery in a device.

Things that are yet to be proven are how big a deal BlinkFeed is to people, their unique camera approach, and whether Zoe, because it's only usable on the device and at zoe.com, takes off.

Samsung's a market leader and, as with any market leader, sets the standard. Those chasing any market leader that don't provide at least the same baseline features, especially at the same price, do so at their own peril. Adding unique features or a unique twist is mandatory when competing against a market leader, if not, shoppers may as well buy the market leading product. If HTC had tons of money in the bank going their own way and not doing so hot with a single device release wouldn't be life or death. But the One's success is life or death for them so you have to question what's going on in the minds of their leadership by steadfastly holding on to their contrarian approach to the market.

LG gets it. Look at the Optimus G Pro. Seperated at birth?

And look at what their doing with s/w.

"LG is planning to bring a "Value Pack" update with extra features to the recently announced Optimus G Pro as well as other high-end LG devices. This update will bring two headline features -- Smart Video and Dual Camera -- to the Optimus G Pro in the Korean market. Smart Video is eye-tracking software that will pause video playback when the phone recognizes that the user is looking away from the screen, and then resume when they look back. Dual Camera is an extension of the Dual Recording feature LG recently debuted, and will let the user take simultaneous pictures from the front and rear cameras.

In addition to these new features, the Value Pack will bring improvements to the QRemote app for increased functionality in controlling TVs. The home button LED will also receive an update with new software to more granularly control its flashing, and a new video camera feature will let users stop/start video but save to one continuous file."​

Their Samsung-ing Samsung much like Samsung did to Apple with the i9000 and it's a smart and appropriate strategy. Yes, it’s derivative but they’ll sell a ton of devices because of it. Then, with the money and recognition it provides, they can become “unique.” Like I said, HTC's a strange company. ;)