HTC just issued a statement about the HTC One’s retail availability. It reads:

“The new HTC One will roll out in the U.K., Germany and Taiwan next week and across Europe, North America and most of Asia-Pacific before the end of April. We appreciate our customers’ patience, and believe that once they have the phone in their hands they will agree that it has been worth the wait.”

This isn’t exactly a surprise. Earlier this week, HTC said they were having issues securing enough camera modules and metal cases for the One. So how exactly will this delay impact the success of the product?

I’m not going to beat around the bush, this news is incredibly toxic. Know what other device launches around the end of April? Samsung’s Galaxy S4. Now granted, the S4 is only going to hit three countries late next month, but by mid-May it’ll be everywhere.

Whereas the One used to be a phone you were planning to buy a full month or two before the Galaxy S4, now it’s a phone that’s going to land on store shelves just a week or two before the S4. That changes the dynamics of the purchase decision.

HTC is going to need a lot of luck to pull this launch off successfully and not drown in the SGS4 hype. Here’s hoping for the best, because if they fail the Android ecosystem will be that much weaker.