For years, HTC has been known mainly for their ODM products that have put out for Treo, iMate Compaq, HP, and many more big name electronics companies. But lately things have changed at HTC. They have started their long awaited push to be recognized as the leading smartphone maker on the globe and so far they have done quite well. Last year they launched the first HTC branded devices (The Touch family of products) and now they are well into their second generation of HTC branded smartphones.
With that in mind, HTC is now changing their sight to achieve a much larger market share than ever imagined. Currently HTC sells around 15 million Windows Mobile phone a year, but that's no longer enough. HTC has set their sight on being one of the top five global leaders in the cell phone marketplace. So, how many phones will it take to meet their new goals? Currently, fifth place holder SONY Ericsson sells between 90-100 phones in a year, roughly six times as many as HTC. Nokia and Motorola are at the top of the charts and their numbers are astronomical. Keep in mind though that these manufacturers are pumping out a whole lot of "dumb" phones for the mass market.
If HTC is really planning on making a move and stepping things up to play with the big boys, we should expect to see a lot more from them in the coming year or two. They will need to ramp up R&D, marketing, and production significantly. They will need to be launching new phones every month rather than 4-5 model variations a year. And I'm sure we can all expect a lot of phones from HTC that will be running on Android in the near future.
I was sitting watching some TV when my HTC Touch lit up with a new e-mail. It turns out that one of our readers who had subscribed to our RSS feed was having issues with the links within the feed to the articles. I quickly jumped up to test the RSS links to see if the same thing happened to me. It did! Turns out the FeedBurner RSS feed is messing around with the link and giving everyone crappy links. I'm in the process of getting this issue resolved, but if you are experiencing the same issues, try using this RSS link, or just click the RSS button in your web browser to re-subscribe. I'm hoping that the problem will get fixed soon since I like knowing how many of you are reading our news on a daily basis. Oh and I can't forget to thank Josh for the e-mai. Thanks!
P.S. Anyone thing the little graphic is a bit too harsh?
With all the news lately about T-Mobile's G1, HTC dream (or whatever they plan on calling it), it seems Sprint does not want to be left out of the mix. Engadget has gotten their hands on a slide deck from an anonymous tipster which shows the HTC Touch Diamond with all its specs, including pricing. Sprint will be launching the Diamond for $299.99 after a mail in rebate and a two year contract commitment. You'll notice on the bottom left of the image that is says "Launch Presentation - Sept 2, 2008" We're not sure if that will be the launch date of the sprint HTC Touch Diamond or if it's the date they are supposed to show this presentation for some other Sprint big wigs. I'm sure some of you may have some additional info that we might not, so feel free to share it with us. Here's the specs from the slide:
TouchFLO 3D
EV-DO Rev. A and Wi-Fi
Full HTML Opera Browser
Windows Mobile 6.1
3.2 MP Camera
4GM of internal flash storage
Stereo Bluetooth
The device will also feature Sprint TV, Sprint Music Store, and Sprint Navigation which seems to indicate that it might not have a built in GPS, but that's just our speculation. Let us know what you think.
Over the weekend, Business Week published an article on HTC's Dream with information from Moe Tanabian, senior principal at IBB Consulting. It seems that analysts just can't get enough Android these days. Moe Tanabian's report seems to have some solid information, but then falls apart on other details. Here are a few highlights from the report
Gmail support will include push e-mail
T-Mobile App Store support
Google advertising software will be pre-installed on the device
Track ball navigation
Future support for Hot Spot @Home
There are a few other details which are given which we don't totally buy. Moe Tanabian also says that the HTC Dream's screen will be larger than the iPhone's or so "he believes". This does match up with old information that we had which indicated that the screen would be 3x5 inches, but recent videos of the device show a screen much smaller than that. he also states that the device will launch in November rather than the October 13th launch date that was reported by TmoNews. And lastly he is unsure if the device will ship with Microsoft Exchange support. Other sites have read this same information and have indicated that it will NOT ship with Microsoft Exchange, but I'm not sure where they are getting that info from.
While we're still waiting for the HTC Touch Diamond to launch on either Sprint of Verizon's networks here in the United States, our good friends up north in Canada are trying to make us jealous. Telus has recently launched the HTC Touch Diamond and now we get to see our first video review of the device. The main difference between this model and other HTC Touch Diamonds is that it sports CDMA network support rather than GSM. The review seems to be pretty satisfied with the phones features and points out the Opera web browsing is quite a treat compared to other WM web browsers. Hope you enjoy.
Even after all the news we released last week about the HTC Dream, many people were still doubtful that the phone could be launched on October 13. One of the main reasons for this was that the device has not yet gotten FCC approval. It seems the wait is over. Engadget has just posted news that HTC Dream has gotten the OK from the FCC and is ready for launch. The HTC Dream will feature Google's Android OS, 802.11b/g WiFi, a "jobball", Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR, and has been tested on T-Mobile's GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/1900 and WCDMA 1700 bands.
It would be nice if T-Mobile just came out and gave us a press release now that we seem to have all the details on the launch and the device. But I guess for now we'll have to settle with adding a little bit of info one day at a time.
More than 24 hours after we were promised some great news regarding HTC's Dream, the news has been revealed. T-Mobile will launch HTC's Android powered phone on October 13th to coincide with their official launch of their 3G network. The phone will be available for pre-sale for one week, starting on September 17 for current T-Mobile customers. It seems you only have to be a T-Mobile customer for 24 hours to fall into that category. The price of the device does not seem to be set in stone yet. TmoNews is throwing around numbers like $149.99 and $99.99, but they did say that the pre-sale price will be $50 less than at launch date. Also, the name of the phone will be Kila, G1 or Dream. You would think that with 30 days till the phone will be available for pre-sale, T-Mobile would have chosen a name for the Android phone. Data plans for the device will be starting in the $35 range and will include text messaging options. For the full release, head on over to our friends at TmoNews. Here's some additional details on HTC's Android phone:· Touch Screen
QWERTY keyboard
3G/ WiFi
Full HTML internet capabilities
Easy access to all Google applications (Gmail, Gtalk, search)
Google Maps (with Street View)
YouTube
IM/Text
Email
Camera 3.0mp; no flash
Video (playback only, no recording)
Music player & 1GB memory card pre-loaded
Applications, all available in Google marketplace (icon on the homescreen)
It seems that Sprints upcoming HTC Diamond has just finished its photo shoot. Images are pooping up all over the web with shot's of Sprint's CDMA version of the Touch Diamond. The main thing that stands out from all other HTc Diamonds to date is that this one has a burgundy back side on it rather than the black we have seen on all other variants of the phone. As we reported before with previous shots of the Sprint HTC Diamond, they have tweaked the TouchFLO 3D interface a little, just like most European carriers have over the past few months. This CDMA version will be a little thicker than GSM versions, measuring in at 101mm x 51mm x 14mm since the phone ships with a 1350mAh battery.
For those of you who have not yet gotten your hands on the HTC touch Diamond or the Touch Pro, here's some extra incentive which gives the devices an even better appeal.
TouchXperience is a new app that allows you to scroll through the TouchFLO 3D interface using the G Sensor simply by tilting the device. It also adds a GPS notification system so that you get reminders based on your current location. Imagine driving home and you get a reminder to stop at the store the block before you pass it. Check out the video.
Our friends over at TmoNews have posted a teaser article claiming that there's some great T-mobile news supposed to be breaking this morning. They have informed us that our readers would be very interested in what they will be reporting. they are supposed to be revealing the news any minute now, so check back soon or hit up TmoNews to get it right from the source.
UPDATE: It seems that their site has gone down due to traffic overload. We're not sure if the info has been released yet.
UPDATE 2: 12:19PM Central Time and TmoNews is still down. Unfortunately we don't have the story here, but I have tell you that the topic will be about the HTC Dream (G1). It's their story and I'm sure they woudn't be willing to give it to us ot break to the world. As soon as we hear anything, we will be posting another update.
UPDATE 3: It seems like TmoNews had a server meltdown, much bigger problem than a simple traffic overload. THey are in the process of resroting their info at the moment. On their front page, they have noted that the NY Times release from earlier today beat them to the punch on SOME of the info they were planning on releasing this morning (NYT reported that that HTC Android phone could launch on T-Mobile as early as October and that the recent HTC Dream video that been on the net is msot likely the device that will launch). TmoNews is saying that the do have a little more infomration on the story and that it will be posted as soon as they get the site back up. We have had this site crash before and I can tell you it's not fun, we feel your pain TmoNews.
