Taiwanese company HTC Corporation is rumored to release HTC 11 in the first quarter of 2017. Intel information came from Weibo, a Chinese social media site. While HTC keeps hushed about the rumors, there are speculations as to the upcoming phone's features that prove to be worthy to watch out for.

The HTC 11 smartphone is said to have a curved screen with a 5.5 inch, 1440 x 2560 display. The curved and larger screens are new features to HTC's smartphone line. This is a significant change with HTC remaining comfortable with a 5.2-inch display ever since the company started manufacturing smartphones.

HTC 11 is also highly likely to be using at most 6GB of RAM, with a mobile chip called Snapdragon 830 manufactured by Qualcomm. It will also feature double lenses, with an 8 MP front camera, and a 12 MP rear camera. The dual lens feature, while not new, is HTC getting by with most smartphones now released with front and rear cameras.

HTC's smartphones remain an affordable option with their unit price ranges under $750. HTC 11 is rumored to be close to $750 once sold in the US.   

Despite the upcoming rumored changes for HTC 11, HTC is purported to remain in an on-going struggle with stiff competitions from heavyweight smartphone giants Apple and Samsung. Although HTC targets the low-income market, it doesn't come anywhere as near as Motorola Moto G, Vodafone Smart Ultra 6, and Vodafone Smart Prime 7, rounded up as the top budget phones for 2016.

Just early this year, HTC sales were reported to plunge so badly the company was almost forced to shut down. This is a big let-down with HTC being the fourth best-selling smartphone manufacturer back in 2011. Investor reports say that the company went downhill from that point, from a market share of 9% to now barely hanging at 1%.  

Technology experts say the key to HTC's struggling sales is due to the company's lack of originality in terms of hardware and software features; there was no research department to push forth innovation; marketing and advertising efforts were put on the wayside; and HTC's smartphones, which were ahead of Apple and Samsung's releases, gave out too much information for other market leaders to copy.

HTC 11 is set to be launched in early 2017, most probably by April. This is a quick changeover with HTC 10 just released last April 2016.