It looks like HTC has beaten Samsung to the punch by launching its own smartphone with a fingerprint sensor before the Galaxy brand makers could get around to copying Apple’s iPhone 5s. Announcing the One Max today, HTC becomes the second major smartphone maker to announce a new handset with a fingerprint sensing security solution in the same number of months, leaving Samsung as the only one of the ‘big three’ to join the fray.

All major manufacturers in the mobile industry are consistently trying to improve the devices that they launch by including some kind of innovation that will set them apart from the competition. As we know, innovation isn’t always possible on the scale that some would like, so when in doubt, the next best thing is to take inspiration from those around you. It seems that the monstrous HTC One Max may have been a little inspired by Apple’s inclusion of Touch ID in the recently released iPhone 5s, and will launch with similar fingerprint scanning capabilities.

Remember the good old days when a company could build a new mobile device, launch into the market and still manage to catch consumers and technology fans unaware? Ah yes, memories. Those days are long gone as it seems that hype and speculation is generated almost months before any official launch, which is definitely true when talking about the HTC One Max device, slated for a release this year. After first making a textual appearance in a leaked network document in the United Kingdom, we can now reportedly put a face to the name due to a Taiwanese site posting images of the purported device.

The culture of smartphones with ridiculously large displays, which is currently being pushed almost single-handedly by Samsung, looks also to be catching on with the chasing pack. HTC, whose flagship One device is one of the Galaxy S4’s closest rivals, is rumored to be plotting a follow-up device for those requiring more display real estate, with reports suggesting the so-called HTC One Max could feature a 6-inch screen.