Computerworld Philippines

HTC to introduce Super LCD screens into its smartphones

By Fei Lumbania on August 20, 2010

By AvantiKumar
MIS Asia
August 20, 2010

KUALA LUMPUR - Mobile phone firm HTC said new displays using Super LCD (SLCD) display technology, which will be used in a variety of HTC phones later this summer, would offer high performance with enhanced power efficiency.

HTC chief executive officer, Peter Chou, said: “[That] SLCD would also be used on the flagship devices such as HTC Desire and Nexus One and would bring exceptional natural balanced colour, clear contrast, broad viewing angles, and improved power efficiency.”

“The SLCD displays provide consumers with a comparable visual experience to HTC’s current 3.7 inch displays with some additional benefits including battery performance,” said Chou.

HTC is listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange and produces smartphones powered by various operating systems such as Android, and Windows.

MEET HIGH DEMAND

“HTC is experiencing high demand for many of our phones, specifically our phones with 3.7 inch displays,” said Chou, adding that the change has been made because suppliers of AMOLED display technology, which is currently in use, cannot keep up with market demand for phones such as HTC Desire.

“In addition, the new SLCD display technology enables us to ramp up our production capabilities quickly to meet the high demand,” he said.

He said SLCD is the latest generation of LCD technology that offered improved performance from earlier LCD panels including about five times better power management. “SLCDs also offer an enhanced viewing experience with wider viewing angles that are enabled by Sony’s new proprietary VSPEC III technology.”

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Dell Streak Arrives Friday — Then What?

By Fei Lumbania on August 17, 2010

By Jared Newman
PC World (US)
August 17, 2010

SAN FRANCISCO - “Dude, you’re getting a Dell” is gradually taking on a new meaning, as Dell pushes into mobile with the Streak tablet and a bunch of new smartphones.

The Dell Streak launches Friday, priced at $550 without a contract and $300 with a voice and data plan from AT&T. Depending on whether you opt for voice coverage, the 5-inch device is either a massive smartphone or a tiny tablet.

Either way, this is new territory for Dell, the third-largest PC maker in the world. Dell has never launched a smartphone or tablet in the United States before, but over the next several months, we’re going to see a lot more as the company tries to reinvent itself.

The first proper smartphone from Dell will be the Aero, an Android smartphone that is coming to AT&T soon. With a 624 MHz processor and only 2GB of memory to start, it’s clearly a low-end smartphone, not the next Droid rival.

Later this year, we may see the Dell Thunder, an Android phone with a 4.1-inch OLED display, an 8-megapixel camera and 720p video capture. A prototype video posted to Engadget shows a monolithic device that combines sharp horizontal edges with rounded grips, but Dell has not officially confirmed its existence. If the Thunder is real, it represents Dell’s best shot at a genuine Android superphone.

Dell will also reportedly hedge its Android bets later this year with the Dell Lightning, a Windows Phone 7 handset. Lightning is rumored to have a 4.1-inch OLED screen and a similar design to the Thunder, but with a physical keyboard that slides out vertically.

So far, Dell’s approach looks unbalanced. The Aero, even if it finds a demographic, is certainly not going to make a splash when it launches, and the Streak is provoking mixed reactions as pundits debate where the 5-inch device fits in. Dell’s smartphones look promising by today’s standards, but at the rate of improvement we’re seeing from competitors like HTC and Motorola, there may be little to distinguish Lighting and Thunder when they arrive towards the end of this year.

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HTC unveils new TD-SCDMA smartphones for China push

By Fei Lumbania on July 29, 2010

By Dan Nystedt
IDG News Service (Taipei Bureau)
July 29, 2010

TAIPEI - High Tech Computer (HTC) on Tuesday unveiled the first four smartphones aimed at its own-brand push into China, as well as partnerships with China’s largest mobile phone service provider, China Mobile, and one of its biggest electronics distributors, Gome Electrical Appliances Holding.

Of the initial smartphones to go on sale in China with the HTC brand, the HTC Tianxi and HTC Tianyi are made for networks using TD-SCDMA (Time-Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access), a 3G technology created in China to reduce the nation’s reliance on foreign technologies.

The HTC Tianxi uses Microsoft’s Windows Mobile operating system, while the HTC Tianyi has Google’s Android mobile OS on board, according to Grace Jin, an HTC representative in China. China Mobile will start selling the two handsets by the end of August or in early September, she said. She did not have pricing details.

The other two smartphones, the HTC Desire and the HTC Wildfire, both run Android.

All four of the handsets have HTC’s Sense user interface.

Mobile phones from HTC have been on sale in China for years, but have been sold under the brand name of partner Dopod. Jin declined to comment on how HTC and Dopod will work together in the future. From now on, HTC smartphones will all carry the HTC brand.

In June, mobile phone industry leaders from China and Taiwan met in Beijing to discuss further cooperation in mobile phones and other technologies. The delegation pledged to work more closely to develop TD-SCDMA technology. HTC, a Taiwanese company, launched its first TD-SCDMA handsets under the Dopod name last year.

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ITC to investigate Apple after HTC complaint

By Fei Lumbania on June 15, 2010

By Nancy Gohring
IDG News Service (Seattle Bureau)
June 15, 2010

SEATTLE - The U.S. International Trade Commission has agreed to investigate Apple based on a complaint filed by handset maker HTC, the Commission said on Friday.

The agency is already investigating HTC after Apple filed its own complaint against the company. The dispute highlights how competitive the smartphone market has become.

HTC makes smartphones based on Google’s Android software, as well as Windows Mobile devices. In May it asked the ITC to block the import of iPhone, iPad and iPod products to the U.S., charging Apple with infringing five of its patents.

It hasn’t stated publicly which patents it believes Apple infringed, but the ITC offered some hints. “The products at issue in this investigation are portable electronic devices that utilize certain power management methods and may incorporate hardware and software for telephone directories within mobile telephone systems,” the agency said.

An administrative law judge for the ITC will hold an evidentiary hearing to look into HTC’s complaint. The agency has 45 days to set a target date for completing the investigation.

The ITC has already agreed to investigate HTC based on a similar complaint filed earlier by Apple. Apple says that HTC uses patents related to the iPhone’s user interface and a range of hardware and software technologies.

As the market for smartphones heats up, the main players are becoming increasingly litigious. Apple is also in a dispute with Nokia over patents. Research In Motion and Motorola settled a patent lawsuit on Friday.

Separately, HTC agreed to pay royalties to Microsoft for technology used in all of its phones running Android. Google, which designed Android and has an increasingly acrimonious relationship with Apple, has largely stayed out of the battle. After Apple filed its complaints against HTC, Google said it stood by the operating system and the partners that helped develop it.

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Of smartphone owners, iPhone users are the most satisfied

By Fei Lumbania on May 31, 2010

By Matt Hamblen
Computerworld (US)
May 31, 2010

FRAMINGHAM - Apple ’s iPhone came out on top in terms of customer satisfaction compared with other smartphones, according to a survey of 1,009 consumers who bought smartphones in the last six months.

But Motorola phones running the Android operating system, including the Motorola Droid, came in a close second in the survey conducted by ChangeWave Research.

ChangeWave found 77% of iPhone customers said they were very satisfied with their purchase, ahead of owners of Motorola smartphones, with 64%. Motorola’s second place finish puts it well above the industry average for recent purchasers, ChangeWave said Wednesday.

In terms of mobile operating systems, the iPhone also finished on top with 71% saying they were very satisfied customers, while the Android coming in with a close second, with 67% very satisfied. The Palm Web OS came in third with 57% of Palm users saying they were very satisfied. The RIM OS finished “well behind the three industry leaders” with 37%, but ahead of Windows Mobile with 24%, ChangeWave wrote.

Owners of HTC devices finished third in customer satisfaction with 51% very satisfied, while Research in Motion’s BlackBerry devices finished fourth, with 46%. Palm devices were fifth with 45%, followed by LG at 40% and Samsung at 35%.

Motorola’s Droid is driving the high satisfaction levels for Motorola, with 69% of Droid buyers saying they were very satisfied with the new Droid running on Android compared with 50% for all other Motorola models, ChangeWave said.

For HTC models, 68% of HTC Hero customers surveyed said they were very satisfied, ahead of the HTC Droid Eris with 50% and HTC Touch with 38%.

The ChangeWave survey, conducted April 21 through May 2, did not include results for the HTC Droid Incredible, which hit stores April 29. The Tour got the highest very satisfied rating of BlackBerry phones with 56%, beating out the Bold with 48% and the Storm with 45%.

ChangeWave also found that the biggest dislike on the minds of iPhone owners was AT&T as its service provider, by 22%, ahead of their dislike of the battery life (19%) and lack of multitasking (11%). For Motorola, the biggest dislike was battery life, with 14%.

ChangeWave also saw a surge of interest in Android devices in a survey of 4,000 potential smartphone buyers it conducted in December.

ChangeWave also has studied AT&T’s role as the exclusive wireless carrier of the iPhone in the U.S., noting in early May that more than half of Verizon Wireless subscribers surveyed said they would buy an iPhone if it were available with Verizon .

In the latest survey, 32% of smartphone owners said they would have purchased the iPhone if it was available from their carrier instead of the phone they did purchased. Palm smartphone buyers showed the strongest interest in buying the iPhone, followed by Motorola buyers.

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Three new smartphones bolster HTC’s product portfolio

By JM Tuazon on May 7, 2010

By John Mark V. Tuazon
Computerworld Philippines
May 7, 2010

Smartphone manufacturer HTC recently unveiled three new additions to its smartphone line, led by a next-generation Android phone and two Windows Mobile devices, each catering to different segments of the market.

HTC’s new Android phone offering, called the HTC Legend, will replace the previous Hero offering to take HTC’s flagship Android phone status. The new Android phone boasts of a unique design which the company claims is the first phone unit in the world to be carved out of a single aluminum block, creating a seamless compact frame.

HTC’s new Windows Mobile phones, on the other hand, are composed of a miniaturized version of the HTC HD2—called the HD mini—and an entry-level touchscreen phone dubbed as HTC Smart.

All three phone units will come pre-packed with the vendor’s unique HTC Sense UI, which is an interface that puts the users’ contacts at the center of the conversation. The updated HTC Sense comes with an application called Friend Stream, which aggregates all social media updates into one place.

HTC’s country manager Mark Sergio said during the launch that Android phones have been slowly contributing a significant amount to their revenue, “but Windows phones are growing as well.”

Sergio clarified, however, that the new Windows phones—which run on Windows Mobile 6.5 operating systems—are not eligible for upgrades when the new Windows Phone 7 rolls out, due to specific hardware requirements of the new OS.

He noted, however, that the company will surely put out a phone running the new Windows OS at the time of its release.

HTC Legend retails locally for P31,700, while the HTC HD Mini costs P29,200. The HTC Smart, on the other hand, will cost P12,900 per unit, probably one of the cheapest touchscreen phones available today.

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Apple lawsuit fails to slow HTC smartphone sales

By Computerworld Philippines on April 29, 2010

By Dan Nystedt
IDG News Service (Taipei Bureau)
April 29, 2010

TAIPEI - Taiwanese smartphone vendor High Tech Computer (HTC) fared better than expected in the first quarter and forecast a record-breaking second quarter on Wednesday, showing that a patent lawsuit from rival Apple failed to harm its business.

HTC has so far seen “no immediate impact on our products, business and customers” from the Apple lawsuit, it said in a statement Wednesday. Apple filed the claim against HTC early last month, saying the company is infringing 20 Apple patents related to the iPhone user interface, underlying architecture and hardware.

The lawsuit had stoked fears HTC’s business may be hurt as customers sought handsets from rival vendors instead of facing a potential import ban as a result of the suit.

Instead, HTC’s first quarter revenue bounced back to year-over-year growth for the first time since the middle of 2009 and executives forecast both revenue and unit shipments will reach new historical highs in the second quarter, which ends June 30.

HTC’s revenue reached NT$37.7 billion (US$1.19 billion) in the first three months of this year, up 19.3 percent from the first quarter last year. Net profit increased slightly to NT$5 billion.

The smartphone vendor forecast its revenue will grow to a record high NT$50 billion in the second quarter as handset shipments soar to 4.5 million units, also a new high. HTC’s previous highs came in the fourth quarter of 2008, when its revenue was NT$47.38 billion on mobile phone shipments of 3.7 million units, a company representative said.

HTC has defended itself in the Apple lawsuit by pointing to its years of work in the smartphone industry and its own patent portfolio. The company shipped the first-ever Windows-based PDA in 1998, the first Windows phone in 2002, and the first-ever smartphone based on Google’s Android mobile operating system in 2008. HTC opened in 1997, ten years before the iPhone debuted in 2007.

On Wednesday HTC also noted the strong performance of its line of smartphones that use Google’s Android mobile operating system. “The initial 2009 Android portfolio has proved to deliver better sell-through as well as longer product life cycles, and we are confident our 2010 Android portfolio will drive momentum around the world,” HTC said.

Some analysts say one reason behind Apple’s patent suit against HTC was an effort to hurt the top seller of Android smartphones and slow down the uptake of the OS globally. HTC is the world’s largest maker of smartphones based on the Android OS as well as the biggest maker of handsets that use Windows.

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Microsoft takes aim at Android with patent portfolio in hand

By Computerworld Philippines on April 29, 2010

By Mikael Ricknäs
IDG News Service (Stockholm Bureau)
April 29, 2010

STOCKHOLM - Microsoft has licensed some of its patents to mobile phone maker HTC for use on the company’s Android-based smartphones, it said Tuesday.

HTC will pay royalties for the patents, Microsoft said in a statement. An HTC representative declined to say how much the company will pay, citing a nondisclosure agreement with Microsoft.

Microsoft is also talking to several other vendors about its patent “concerns” related to Google’s smartphone operating system, according to Horacio Gutierrez, deputy general counsel of intellectual property and licensing at Microsoft.

However, Microsoft isn’t saying what technologies are covered by the patent deal or what its patent concerns are related to Android.

Microsoft has to ensure that competitors do not get a free ride on its innovations, Gutierrez said in a statement.

The other makers of Android-based smartphones contacted by Microsoft are keeping their discussions under wraps.

Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications, which also makes phones based on Windows Mobile, has regular discussions with its partners, including Microsoft, but isn’t commenting on what those discussions are about, according to Aldo Liguori, head of communications at Sony Ericsson.

Motorola and Samsung, which also sell Android smartphones, didn’t return calls for a comment on the matter.

The fact that HTC, Samsung and Sony Ericsson also make Windows phones may make any discussions with Microsoft easier to resolve, according to Francisco Jeronimo, research manager at IDC. He said he wouldn’t be surprised if the vendors can get discounts related to how they are going to push devices based on Windows Phone 7.

Motorola could have a tougher time coming to an agreement with Microsoft since it dumped Windows Mobile in favor of Android, according to Jeronimo.

Patents have grown in importance as phones have become more advanced, according to Ben Wood, analyst at CCS Insight.

Companies unable to agree licensing deals often head to the courts. Recent clashes of this kind between phone manufacturers have pitted Apple against Nokia and Apple against HTC. Usually it is about the money: companies will license patents if the price is right, but just a fraction of a percentage point difference in royalties can mean a lot of money when a billion phones are sold annually, according Wood.

One company pursuing a different strategy is Apple, Wood said: rather than license its patents to generate a revenue stream, it uses them to differentiate its products from the competition.

Dan Nystedt, in Taipei, also contributed to this story.

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Intel, Samsung join to accelerate WiMax 2 development

By Computerworld Philippines on April 13, 2010

By Agam Shah
IDG News Service (New York Bureau)
April 13, 2010

NEW YORK - Intel late on Sunday said it was collaborating with companies including Samsung and Motorola to develop the next generation of WiMax mobile broadband technology, which will provide a speed boost in 4G wireless data transfers.

The companies have joined a new group, the WiMax 2 Collaboration Initiative, which aims to accelerate the development of standards and devices surrounding WiMax 2 technology, the companies said in a joint press release. The group will collaborate with the WiMax Forum, an industry organization that certifies and promotes WiMax products.

WiMax (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) is a wireless technology that provides fast data-transfer rates over a wider area than Wi-Fi. The technology is finding adoption in Western European and developing countries, and is available in the U.S. through companies like Sprint and Clearwire. The new standard will provide transfer rates of more than 300M bps (bits per second) at peak rates.

Typical transfer rates on current WiMax networks could be between 4M bps to 6M bps for downloads and 1M bps to 2M bps for uploads, but could scale higher depending on the distance from a tower, Intel has said.

The new WiMax 2 specification is built on the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) 802.16m standard, which includes advanced on-air capabilities compared to the current WiMax deployments based on the 802.16e standard, the companies said. The 802.16m standard will be backward-compatible with previous standards and is expected to be completed by the second half of this year, the companies said.

There is increasing demand for rich-media applications on mobile devices, and the improvements will help WiMax operators provide the necessary bandwidth, the companies said. The improvements in WiMax 2 include lower latency and increased VOIP (voice-over-Internet-protocol) capacity.

Users on Clearwire’s WiMax network are consuming an average of 7GB of data per month, said Mike Sievert, chief commercial officer at Clearwire, in the statement. The improvements will be a step forward to meet increased data consumption, he said.

A number of WiMax devices are already available in the market. HTC in March released the EVO 4G smartphone, which includes WiMax capabilities. Intel has also invested a lot in the technology, and offers a chipset for laptops to connect to WiMax networks. But many wireless carriers including AT&T and Verizon support the development of LTE (Long-Term Evolution), an upcoming 4G technology that could compete with WiMax. Intel hasn’t said if it would support LTE, but is keeping its options open, a company executive said earlier this year.

The organizations joining the WiMax 2 Collaboration Initiative include Alvarion, Beceem, GCT Semiconductor, Sequans, XRONet and ZTE and Taiwanese research organization, ITRI (Industrial Technology Research Institute).

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HTC to sustain Windows lead despite Android success

By JM Tuazon on February 1, 2010

By John Mark V. Tuazon
Computerworld Philippines
February 1, 2010

Despite the enormous uptake of the HTC Hero, the Google Nexus One, and its other Android smartphone offerings, mobile devices manufacturer HTC said it is keen on maintaining its leadership in the Windows Mobile front, a local executive pointed out Friday.

At the local launch of new Windows Mobile 6.5-powered phones, Mark Sergio, HTC country manager, said their venture into Android-powered devices is a mere move to capture more of the consumer market.

“We are not giving up our leadership in the Windows Mobile smartphone market,” Sergio said. “It is a strategic move by HTC to go into different market segments with different operating systems.”

Sergio added that they see a big opportunity in trying to convert their enterprise customers into mainstream consumers. “That is why we are introducing phone models to new price segments,” he stressed.

Similarly, software giant Microsoft said it remains unfazed by the steady rise of other mobile OS such as Google’s Android and Apple’s iPhone OS, saying they are leveraging on the popularity of the PC OS in winning new users.

“We are continually striving to improve our OS,” said Andre Ngo, business development-mobile communications sector for the Asia Pacific Region, Microsoft Philippines. “Having competitors raises the level of innovation. At the end of the day, it’s the consumers who will benefit from it.”

Ngo said Windows leverages on the ubiquity of its desktop operating system, which eases the learning curve for new adopters. “Whatever we do on a PC, we should be able to do on the phone as well, anytime, anywhere,” he added.

The new Windows Mobile 6.5 provides flexible features for the consumer and the enterprise, with a mobile version of Communicator that allows instant messaging via the infrastructure; call forwarding options so users can answer calls anytime, anywhere; Office Mobile 2010 offered on beta with the recent addition of OneNote; and an “improved web experience” via the Internet Explorer for smartphones.

Based on mobile phone shipments, Ngo said Windows Mobile OS enjoys a comfortable second spot in the country, next only to Nokia’s Symbian. Apple’s iPhone and Research-in-Motion’s Blackberry devices follow suit, while Android is still slowly gathering steam.

Mobile phone models revealed during the event include HTC’s HD2, a touchscreen phone with a 4.3” screen that measures 11 millimeters thin. It also comes equipped with a 1GHz snapdragon processor and a capacitive screen that enables multitouch interaction with the device. The unit retails for about P40,000, according to Sergio.

On the other hand, Cherry Mobile, a new entrant in the mobile phone market, offers its first touchscreen unit in Eclipse, which comes equipped with the new Windows Mobile OS. The model packs a dual-sim capability and WiFi connectivity, all for just P9,999.

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Google Phone: Take a Peek

By Fei Lumbania on December 14, 2009

By Paul Suarez
PC World (US)
December 14, 2009

SAN FRANCISCO - An image on the Android Developer site (click on “Dev Phones”) is apparently the HTC-made successor to the Android Dev Phone 1, and is already in the hands of select Google employees.

Back in November Michael Arrington of TechCrunch reported we would see a super-powered, Google-branded phone in early 2010. Arrington’s reports appear to be getting some serious confirmation as Google employees are tweeting they’re testing new devices running Android 2.1.

The new phone on Google’s site shows a Bravo-like HTC model labeled ADP 2 alongside the Android Dev Phone 1. Google offers no information about the ADP 2 on the site — just the image — but tweets indicate the phone Google staff is playing with is also a GSM-unlocked phone.

According to the tweets, the phone is made by HTC, has a trackball and a high-resolution OLED display, and is “like an iPhone on beautifying steroids.”

The phone’s hardware sounds to be an awful lot like the HTC Bravo (aka Passion/Dragon) that was featured in HTC’s leaked 2010 roadmap and captured in leaked photos back in October.

TechCrunch is confident the phone will launch in January and be sold directly by Google as an unlocked GSM phone. However, even if the phone is surfacing, direct sales are not confirmed.

Typically tweets should be taken with skepticism, but Google confirmed the existence of a test device that was handed out to employees, but could not release any specific details on the product. Here’s Google’s statement:

“We recently came up with the concept of a mobile lab, which is a device that combines innovative hardware from a partner with software that runs on Android to experiment with new mobile features and capabilities, and we shared this device with Google employees across the globe. This means they get to test out a new technology and help improve it.”

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Motorola to sell Droid-style phone

By Fei Lumbania on December 8, 2009

By Owen Fletcher
IDG News Service (Beijing Bureau)
December 08, 2009

BEIJING - Motorola will start selling a smartphone similar to the Droid in China this month, but the phone will use China’s homegrown 3G standard and a China Mobile operating system.

The MT710, Motorola’s first smartphone made for the China Mobile Ophone brand, will go on sale in China on Dec. 28, a company representative said. Pricing was not available but the device, like all Ophones, will use a version of the Google Android operating system modified by China Mobile. The Droid offered by Verizon Wireless in the U.S. uses the normal Android operating system.

The MT710 will also support the 3G mobile standard designed in China and being promoted by China Mobile, TD-SCDMA (Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access). Another Chinese technology it will support is a security protocol designed in the country for wireless LANs. In the past China has barred Wi-Fi on mobile phones but this year it began approving phones with the function if they supported the Chinese protocol.

Unlike the Droid, the MT710 has no slide-out keyboard. But both handsets have a 3.7-inch touchscreen and a 5-megapixel camera and can be viewed sideways to browse the Internet or watch videos. Their faces also look similar with a few touch buttons below each of their screens. The full name of the Motorola phone, the MT710 Zhiling, uses Chinese characters that mean “intelligent” and “leader.”

China Mobile is the world’s largest carrier by accounts with over 510 million subscribers. But its 3G services have struggled so far and the carrier has worked to get attractive handsets from foreign vendors to attract more users.

Nokia has announced its first handset using the China Mobile 3G standard and Dell’s first mobile phone, the Mini 3i, recently went on sale in China as a 2G Ophone. Dell plans to release a 3G phone for China Mobile at an unspecified time, Yang Chao, Dell’s consumer business general manager for Greater China, told reporters last month. Other Ophones are on sale or on the way from Lenovo Mobile, LG Electronics and Dopod, the China distributor for Taiwan-based High Tech Computer (HTC).

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HTC Imagio: Verizon’s Must-Have Phone?

By Fei Lumbania on September 21, 2009

By Jared Newman
PC World (US)

SAN FRANCISCO (09/18/2009) - Verizon Wireless isn’t known for great smartphones, but the carrier will get at least one nice-looking phone in a few weeks, with the HTC Imagio set to arrive on October 6.

The Windows Mobile 6.5 phone was previously codenamed the HTC Whitestone, and has a 3.6-inch WVGA touch screen, a 528-Mhz Qualcomm processor, 512MB ROM, 256 MB of RAM, and support for GSM along with Verizon’s CDMA/EV-DO network. There’s also a 5-megapixel autofocus camera and GPS, according to Boy Genius Report.
Spec-wise, the phone’s a lot like HTC’s Touch Pro 2, released for Verizon customers in July. Still, the Imagio’s boost to WinMo 6.5 could correct the sluggishness we felt with the otherwise solid Touch Pro 2.
For the Windows Mobile haters, there may also be some good news ahead: BGR says the Android-powered HTC Predator will come to Verizon later in October, though we haven’t seen photos and know nothing else about it. Given HTC’s track record, it’ll probably be some variation on the touch screen phone theme.

Any sign of slick smartphones bodes well for Verizon’s captives. Earlier this week, it was all doom and gloom, with Wired’s Gadget Lab running a story on why the carrier’s phones are lame. Most telling was a quote from Verizon spokeswoman Brenda Raney, who said the company would rather focus on its network than its stable of phones.
“Keep in mind that for Verizon Wireless, it isn’t so much about the device as it is about the delivery,” Raney said. In other words, while you may enjoy great coverage on the carrier’s 3G network, you may not particularly love using your phone.
Will the HTC Imagio change all that? Probably not. I can’t imagine any Windows Mobile 6.5 phone having the buzz and desirability of Palm’s Pre or, dare I say it, the iPhone. But any phone with solid hardware and a nice, big touch screen is a step in the right direction for Verizon Wireless.

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HTC Touch

By Fei Lumbania on July 3, 2009

By Ronald James P. Panis
Computerworld Philippines

NOTING how more and more mobile phone users are climbing aboard the smartphone/touch phone bandwagon, HTC Philippines Corp. adds momentum to this rolling trend with the local launch of two new offerings, the HTC Touch Diamond2 and Touch Pro2.

The pair, which is HTC’s new flagship devices, offers a range of features. One of these is the HTC TouchFLO 3D interface, which has been integrated more deeply into a customized version of the Windows Mobile 6.1 to mainly make navigation and quick access to applications (like messaging and email) easier and more intuitive. Trouble-free navigation and accessibility are also realized through the phones’ single contact view. Touted as a “people-centric communication approach,” this feature displays from the contact card or the in-call screen during a phone conversation individual conversation history of contacts regardless of whether voice, text or email were used.

Embedded in the two as well is HTC’s push Internet technology. Internet browsing on a mobile phone is made simpler and enjoyable since this feature allows faster downloading and rendering of web pages. Users can also pre-select their favorite web pages (maximum of four) on the phone and access these immediately anytime and anywhere.

Geared with a QWERTY keyboard and a 3.6-inch widescreen VGA display, the Touch Pro2 will especially delight business professionals with its Straight Talk technology. Allowing seamless transition from email to single/multi-party conference calls (approximately up to 5 people) without having to put anyone on hold or switch to another application, the Straight Talk is paired with asymmetric speakers with full duplex acoustics – easily transforming the Pro2 into a sophisticated speakerphone fit for corporate boardrooms.

With 20% larger battery capacity and a five mega-pixel auto focus camera, the Touch Diamond2 is tagged at a suggested retail price of P36,900 and is already available, while the Pro2 (P48,900) will be out this month.

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Posts Tagged ‘ htc ’

HTC to introduce Super LCD screens into its smartphones

Dell Streak Arrives Friday — Then What?

HTC unveils new TD-SCDMA smartphones for China push

ITC to investigate Apple after HTC complaint

Of smartphone owners, iPhone users are the most satisfied

Three new smartphones bolster HTC’s product portfolio

Apple lawsuit fails to slow HTC smartphone sales

Microsoft takes aim at Android with patent portfolio in hand

Intel, Samsung join to accelerate WiMax 2 development

MWC: HTC unveils update to Nexus One and HTC Legend

HTC to sustain Windows lead despite Android success

Google Phone: Take a Peek

Motorola to sell Droid-style phone

HTC Imagio: Verizon’s Must-Have Phone?

HTC Touch

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