Here are a few dates I’d like to share with you in order to prove a point about not just HTC, but the smartphone market in general. In less than half a year, HTC somehow managed to announce two flagship phones. What’s worse is that these phones, the DNA and the One, couldn’t be more different from each other.

October 17, 2012: HTC announces the J Butterfly in Japan. Says it’s going to ship in December.

November 21, 2012: The J Butterfly starts shipping on Verizon Wireless as the Droid DNA.

February 19, 2013: HTC announces the One in New York. Says it’ll ship in late March or early April.

The video above, courtesy of Pocketnow, is an incredible seven and a half minute point by point break down of what separates these two devices. It’s a great watch, but it’s also very painful. I say painful because I can’t understand why a company wouldn’t just pour all their energy into one product?

Do the math yourself: How many months are between October and February? Four.

You’re telling me HTC couldn’t wait four months to unveil the superior handset, but instead had to announce an intermittent SKU to secure some operator deals?

Peter Chou should just resign now.