The much-rumored HTC One successor, dubbed the "M8," will reportedly make its official debut sometime in late March, according to a new report.

HTC has significantly upped its game with its current flagship, the HTC One, which gained high praise for its top-end specifications and its sleek, elegant aluminum unibody case. The company tried to build on that success and launched an HTC One Mini and an HTC One Max, i.e. smaller and larger spinoffs of the flagship, but it still saw an operating loss.

With the HTC One seeing such great popularity, the rumor mill anticipates great things for its successor. Dubbed the "M8," the HTC One follow-up has leaked on several occasions so far, and a new Bloomberg report now claims that it will arrive in late March. The publication claims to have received this information from "a person with direct knowledge of the plans."

While the HTC One successor is yet to become official, various reports so far have tried to paint a picture of what to expect. Rumored specifications include a 5-inch display or larger, as well as a more powerful quad-core processor - a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 or even a Snapdragon 805.

Moreover, the next-generation flagship will also reportedly boast a twin-sensor UltraPixel rear camera, which should provide better focus and depth of field and improve the overall image quality. Other rumored specs of the HTC One successor include a hefty 3GB of RAM, a fingerprint reader, and the much-touted aluminum unibody case. Bloomberg's source said that the design will be little changed compared to the current flagship, which makes sense connsidering that the HTC One has been praised for its premium build. As for the extra security, HTC has already used a fingerprint scanner in its HTC One Max, so it wouldn't be much of a surprise if the company deployed the same technology in its next-generation flagship as well. The handset is further expected to rock Android 4.4 KitKat out of the box and run the latest version of HTC Sense.

When it comes to branding, the company will likely stick to the HTC One name for its 2014 flagship. This means that HTC may simply launch a refreshed flagship with more powerful technologies, but retain the same moniker.

HTC has yet to announce plans for its next-generation flagship smartphone, but the company is expected to unveil its latest and greatest soon enough, as the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2014 is set to kick off next month in Barcelona. An unveiling in late February at the show would give HTC a few weeks to prepare for the handset's launch in late March, which would fall in line with Bloomberg's reported timeframe. As always, however, it is highly advisable to take all such rumors and reports with a hefty grain of salt until official confirmation.