In what could be perceived as an official confirmation of the rumored HTC M7, HTC CEO Peter Chou was seen using the flagship device during the company's end of year party. Meanwhile, recent reports suggest that HTC M7 will launch in the U.S. with a range of mobile carriers including AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile.

"This event today is a great opportunity for testing [the camera]. I was still testing it just now," the often soft-spoken CEO was heard saying at the event following which he was seen screaming "HTC! HTC! M7! M7!" with the enthusiastic HTC crowd.

According to Chinese Web site cnYES.com, Peter Chou used the opportunity to praise the HTC M7 team for working overtime to finalize the device. In a video taken at the HTC party, Chou was seen taking pictures of the gathering with a white HTC M7. Though we cannot read too much into the specifics of the smartphone from the video clip, the device does seem to have a 4.7-inch screen size as rumored.

Meanwhile, M7 is reportedly heading to various carriers including AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint. Yes, one big name is missing; there is no mention of Verizon yet.

"According to one of our most trusted sources, AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint will launch partners for the HTC M7 in the U.S. market," HTCSource reported. Sources say, though there are details that show a Verizon variant of the phone is in the works, it will be delayed.

It's expected that the HTC M7 will go on sales on March 8 in Europe and will reach on AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint a couple of weeks later. HTC is expected to reveal its M7 plans during its Feb. 19 press event in New York and London.

According to various leaks and rumors, M7 will possibly feature a Qualcomm 1.7GHz quad-core processor and run on Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. The device will come with the newly designed Sense UI. Other speculated features include a 4.7-inch SoLux 1080p full-HD 468ppi touch display, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage, 13-megapixel rear and 2-megapixel front cameras and would support 4G LTE.

Watch HTC CEO Peter Chou flashing M7