HTC has increased the price of the unlocked HTC One from $574.99 to $599.99. The company has not released an official statement to explain why the device got a $25 price bump, but I have an inkling it has something to do with Google’s upcoming “Nexus Experience,” which is set to launch on Google Play for $599.99 on June 26.

It would make no sense at all for Google to offer the One Google Edition for an extra $25 over the original Sense version, especially if its is planning to allow One owners to remove Sense for the native Android experience.

The only possible reasoning I can see behind the price bump is that both the unlocked Google Edition One and the regular One are 32GB models, so it would make sense if HTC increased its price if it thought it was going to lose out.

The One is HTC’s flagship device for 2013, featuring a 1.7GHz quad-core processor, 32GB of onboard storage, 2GB of RAM, BoomSound, an UltraPixel camera with HTC Zoe, and a 4.7-inch 1080p display.

The One runs Android 4.1 Jelly Bean using HTC’s Sense 5.0 UI, however, in the near future you will be able to purchase the One running the native Android vanilla UI. The Google Edition will run Android 4.3 (after release).

Just a final thought, wouldn’t it have been nice if Google had matched HTC and sold the Google Edition One for $574.99?

• SourceHTC