On Wednesday, a Taiwanese brokerage company –by a considerable fraction – down to 10.5 million units shipped to retailers and carriers during the first half of 2013. It previously predicted 15 million HTC One units to be shipped over the same period. The cause of this are said to be underwhelming yields of several crucial components, one of them being the camera module for the smartphone's UltraPixel camera . As a side note, the HTC One uses a custom-built module with 4 megapixels of resolution and optical image stabilization, which despite its relatively low pixel count promises to deliver great image and video quality due to the increased pixel size. Another component that's in short supply is the voice coil motor, according to the source.

All of that's pretty bad news for HTC and its future as a competitive player on the smartphone market, especially when the One will be the company's only high-end Android handset in 2013 . There's a real chance of HTC launching the One in very limited quantities, which could lead to potential customers turning to Samsung, Sony, or LG once stock runs out. Well, at least it won't be long until we see what's going to happen. The HTC One is expected to be released next week in the U.K. followed by other markets soon after. In the U.S., carriers AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile will be offering the device , although exact launch dates haven't yet been announced.