Mobiles2day - Mobile Industry News

Recently announced device HTC Touch HD will be available in UK exclusively on Orange network. Press release on Orange website mentions that device will be available early Novermber 2008.

Touch HD is another multimedia focused device that has huge 3.8″ screen and driven by touch interface.Device is powered by Windows mobile 6.1 and has HTC TouchFLO 3D user interface.

The HTC Touch HD is exclusive on the Orange UK network until 2009 from £79.99 on an 18 month, £40 per month contact. Orange offers internet browsing up to mobile internet browsing up to 250Mb per month, which is very low in comparison to 3GB  of data that other providers offer. Orange should revamp it’s data tariff, because there is no point of having this multimedia device with such low data allowance.

Here is quick specification sheet for this handset:

• Size: 115 x 62.8 x 12 mm
• Weight: 146.4 grams/5.164 oz with battery
• Connectivity: Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE: 850/900/1800/1900 MHzWCDMA / HSPA: 900/2100MHz.
• Software/Operating system: HTC TouchFLO 3D with Windows Mobile® 6.1 Professional
• Display: 3.8 inch Wide Screen VGA screen (480 x 800 WVGA)
• Camera: 5.0 megapixel with auto focus - Second Camera: VGA
• Internal memory: 512 MB flash; 288 MB RAM
• Memory card: microSD^TM memory card (SDHC^TM capable)
• WLAN: 802.11b/g
• Bluetooth®: 2.0 with EDR
• GPS: GPS/AGPS
• Interface: HTC ExtUSB^TM (mini-USB and audio jack in one; USB 2.0 High-Speed)
• Battery: 1350 mAh
• Talk time: WCDMA: Up to 390 minutes*** / GSM: Up to 310 minutes***
• Standby time: WCDMA: Up to 450 hours*** / GSM: Up to 390 hours***
• Chipset: Qualcomm® MSM7201a^TM 528 MHz

Good device consideration is that Touch HD has 3.5mm headphone jack, so you can use your own headphones for the best possible sound quality!

Via Orange Press Release

March of new touch screen phones continues with latest addition from RIM - first Blackberry smartphone driven by touch screen: Storm. A lot information about this handset has been leaked on internet, but now Vodafone UK has it on it’s website as coming soon.

You can also enter a competition to win this handset, simply enter your details here, and you will be entered into prize draw. Vodafone will give 20 of this handsets away, so waste no time and register your name!

Storm has impressive list of features and capabilities:

* 7.2 mbps HSDPA/UMTS (2100/1900/850 MHz)
* Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE (850/900/1800/1900 MHz)
* 1GB of memory, 192MB RAM
* 1400 mAhr battery. Standby time: 528 hours
* MicroUSB port
* MicroSD and MicroSDHC expandable up to 8GB
* 3.2 megapixel camera with flash
* Video capture. Normal mode (480×320) and MMS mode (176×144)
* Assisted GPS

Device lacks Wi-Fi, which is a little dissappointment, but should be compensated if you get it with unlimited data tariff and have strong signal where you live.

High Tech Computer (HTC) will begin to ship its first Android-based handsets to ODM clients in the fourth quarter of this year as scheduled, according to company CFO Hui-ming Cheng.HTC revenues are expected to grow 10% sequentially and 30% on year in the third quarter, buoyed by the planned launch of CDMA, GSM and sliding form-factor HTC Touch Diamond handsets, Cheng indicated.

HTC has shipped Touch Diamond handsets to 50 telecom operators in more than 30 countries so far, Cheng noted.

However, Cheng said that HTC’s gross margin will be reduced by one percentage point in the third quarter as compared to the second quarter due to the rising ratio of ODM handsets.

Market sources in Taiwan indicated that HTC is expected to start shipping Xperia X1 handsets to Sony Ericsson in the third quarter, pushing up the ratio of ODM handsets.

The ratio of ODM handsets will continue to rise marginally in the fourth quarter of 2008 but it is unlikely to surpass 10% through the whole year of 2009, Cheng noted.

Via Digitimes