iPhone rival: HTC TOUCH

[killerrobot]

Ya, just what I would want ... a Windows Mobile phone. Sorry, but I have not owned, nor will I ever own a Windows Mobile phone. I would rather squeeze my head in a vice until it popped like a grapefruit.

Yeah me too, but I would rather squeeze my head in a vice than buy a phone with an OS that has never been tested in the real world.

Also, the day I have 500 dollars to spend on a mobile device that hasn't been test out yet is the day I give my MBP to the homeless because I can just afford to buy another one later. When I buy a phone, I want a phone. I already have an iPod, a laptop... And I'm in agreement that the touch keyboard thing would be nice to see, and even more impressive see it work well.

 

[/dev/toaster]

Yeah me too, but I would rather squeeze my head in a vice than buy a phone with an OS that has never been tested in the real world. WM is now version 6 with lots of real world experience.

I stopped using MS products many years ago for a long list of reasons. Just because Windows is the largest market share isn't going to convince me to switch from OS X.

Sure, OS X hasn't been tested on phones. I am willing to take that risk.

Also, HTC is marketing the TOUCH in Europe, Asia and the US while the iPhone is only going to be marketed in the US. On top of that HTC already has 50% market share in Europe, 30 in the US and 20 in Asia. So as far as everyone saying the iPhone will blow away competition--yeah it might in the special olympics category of technology. It all just marketing hype to steal your money. I bought the iPod that could play video when it came out over a year ago, and I just now watched a video on it today. Was it worth being one of the first owners?

Again, not interested in market share. I am using Apples long history for great products to help me make my decision. I am also looking at the demo that was shown during the keynotes, not the ads.

I intend on using the full features offered in the iPhone. I had yet to see a feature that I won't use.

I also own a video iPod, and I have watched count less videos on it. So, it is the correct product for me.

Nonetheless, the day I have 500 dollars to spend on a mobile device is the day I give my MBP to the homeless because I can just afford to buy another one later. When I buy a phone, I want a phone. I already have an iPod, a laptop... And I'm in agreement that the touch keyboard thing would be nice to see, and even more impressive see it work well.

Sounds like the iPhone isn't the product for you on many fronts.

 

[killerrobot]

Sounds like the iPhone isn't the product for you on many fronts.

Yeah, I think you're right. I would love to see the iPhone be the greatest phone out there, but I just feel Apple is selling more hype than anything else and just banking on their past history of success.

If its as good as everyone hopes it will be, maybe I will be an owner of a Gen 2 or 3 iPhone. Maybe I'm not ready for a mobile device yet. They just haven't convinced me to jump on the bandwagon yet and I would hate to see these forums filled with "iPhone worst phone ever" posts a week after it's on the market.

 

[Buschmaster]

I swear I heard him say he was going to **** the page upward...

It looks sorta cool, but it's nothing compared to the iPhone.

If it could be the same price as the cheaper phones I would consider it, otherwise, no.

 

[Blue Velvet]

I had a brief play with one of these today. One of the guys in IT had bought one for about £275 without SIM.

It feels nice in the hand, the screen gets very fingerprinted, the scrolling is cool but it's not multi-touch. The keyboard is tiny but seemed to be OK...

Don't ask me for more info, only held it for about 30 seconds.

 

[Max Payne]

On top of that HTC already has 50% market share in Europe

What are you smoking?

50% market share! LOL. Nokia has 2% market share, Sony Ericsson has 3% and Motorolla has 4%, No?

 

[KingofAwesome]

Yeah me too, but I would rather squeeze my head in a vice than buy a phone with an OS that has never been tested in the real world. WM is now version 6 with lots of real world experience.

WM may be at version 6, but it doesn't have a big marketshare and having used it years ago on an iPaq, I can say I do not want to go back to it ever again.

It's only at a 5.6% marketshare (based on this wikipedia article) and I suspect that a lot of its marketshare is simply based on business environments where the support staff would prefer to have the same family of OS's running on servers, desktops and phones.

Apple, on the other hand, is putting an OS that, while unproven in this form, shows a tremendous amount of promise and the OS family has a long track record of providing an easy-to-use interface that is even enjoyable.

WM's duration doesn't mean much to me when I recall my experience with it in 2002. I sold that PDA on eBay pretty quickly and happily went back to a palm device.

 

[killerrobot]

What are you smoking?

I'm smoking what's printed in the news.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/ac37c500-13ba-11dc-9866-000b5df10621.html
"HTC, the global market leader for Windows-based mobile devices"

http://es.theinquirer.net/2007/06/08/htc_presenta_su_propio_iphone.html
"En estos momento, el Viejo Continente aporta entre el 40% y el 50% de los ingresos de la compañía; EE UU en torno al 30%, mientras Asia representa menos del 20%."

Sorry the second is in Spanish but that was my original source. Let me know if you want a translation.

And all I'm trying to say is that if everyone has so many problems with WM even now (not even looking at your iPaq running on the first version KingofAwesome), how many problems are possible from the first version of the OS on the iPhone? I think it might be worth waiting to buy instead of just rushing out with apple crazed eyes and buying one blindly just because Apple made it.

 

[MacBoobsPro]

That John bloke is the main bloke at HTC but he hasnt seen the iPhone?

That tells you the iPhone pisses all over the HTC phone because he doesnt want to make direct comparisons or he is just blind and stupid.

 

[capoditutti]

i'm using the HTC S710 at the moment, and i had an iMate JAMin before. They both are made by the same company; one when it specialized in operator-branded devices, and one when it 'came out'. I can tell you that HTC seems to skimp on raw processing power and storage in favour of latest OS and the accolades that come with being 'first'.. Apple wasnt the first to introduce portable hard-disk-based music players; it just made theirs the best one. The iphone will not be the first with a touch screen, although some features on it will be quite new, neither will it be the first to combine a phone and a pda with music-playing capabilities. It's all about the quality of the package people - I'm sure they'll get it right!!!

 

[Ubuntu]

Basically, I want somethign that I can use to browse the web wirelessly when I'm at a coffee shop or something. I want to check email, news, maybe chat on MSN a bit. I want a big bright screen and long battery life, but I really don't need anything else. It doens't need to be a phone or a music player or anything. I just wanna browse the web for cheap!!!

Really my most inexpensive option is a PSP. It has Wi-Fi and a really really nice screen but the navigation blows donkey goats.

I was actually thinking of getting an iPhone to replace my phone and serve this purpose, but then, it's kind of an extravagant solution for me.

[Edit]: Maybe when I go to college I'll get a nerdy engineering student to make one for me

I'd probably avoid the PSP for navigation. The screen-size is great, but you get the common problems of your browser not being supported (very annoying when I tried to update the Flash), layouts being scrambled, and slowwwwwwwww-speeds.

Of course, the text input is a bit slow.

 

[pr5owner]

That John bloke is the main bloke at HTC but he hasnt seen the iPhone?

That tells you the iPhone pisses all over the HTC phone because he doesnt want to make direct comparisons or he is just blind and stupid.

LMFAO, your comparing a bottom end HTC phone with a high end PDA phone? (yes the iPhone is in the range of the highest end PDA phones because of the price bracket) you want to compare phone to phone?

my TyTN is quad band 3G UNLOCKED for $418 SHIPPED NO CONTRACT with tons of accessories and aftermarket support.

BTW SMARTPHONES != POCKET PC phones
Smartphone’s are running crippled windows like the Motorola Q, Samsung Blackjack, HTC cavalier, etc

Pocket pc phones are full blown pocket pc’s with phone functionality
Smart phones are pretend phones that pretend to be PDAs (no touch screen)
iPhone pretends to be both a phone and PDA and fails miserably at it
regular phones are only for making calls, they do not perform PDA functions well at all

Cingular 8525 is the same as the HTC Hermes which is available in the US LOCALLY, in Canada i just ordered online and got to me in 27 hrs, my HTC Prophet which i sold got to me in 17hrs from Hong Kong.

You people are saying my TyTN cant run with the iPhone?

Read QR code? (This is hella popular in Japan, I even see this on UPS parcels, and hard drive labels)
Google maps? Yep got that + GPS support via Bluetooth or internal GPS (depending on phone)
a2dp? Yep
Infrared to control TVs and DVD players, etc yep, (does the iphone have IR?)
Wifi B/g? Yep
BT 2.0? Yep
3G? Yep
2MP camera with LED FLASH/Flashlight? Yep (the Kaiser is 2.8MP which is the successor to the TyTN, the TyTN is out of date since it’s been out for almost 2 years)
Front facing video call camera? Yep (I don’t see one on the iPhone, HTF are you supposed to do video voicemail?)
Camera to OCR business cards to outlook? Yep (world card mobile)
Choice of BROWSER, PEI, Minimozilla, Opera, Net front? Yep (I use opera because it kicks ass)
Expandable memory? Yep
removable battery? Yep
Expandable battery? yep (you can do a double sized battery for like 10hrs of talk, as well as cold swap with ANOTHER double sized battery for ridiculous amounts of talk, or web surfing, or whatever you need)
Absurd amounts of 3rd party software available? Yep
GAMES? Yep (I like snails with Bluetooth and wife support)
No ridiculous contract or start up price? Yep
Slide out backlit keyboard? yep (mine is blue backlit, but other TyTN versions are colors like red, white, etc. tactiless KB's SUCK ASS, I used to use one for my HTC Prophet, it was horrid to type on since you have to rely 90% on your eyes and 10% on your ears, the KB I had was spb full screen keyboard, it made typewriter sounds every time I hit a key and it DID make it a little easier to type since you know you actually hit the key, but don’t know which until you look)
skype/VOIP? yep
ICQ/MSN/Yahoo/Etc or all of them in 1 program? Yep
MMS? Yep, don’t give me that **** about “oooh it has email so that compensates for it” ok so does everyone have the iphone that can receive email? Because last time I checked the majority of people are using phones not capable of playing videos from emails. Most phones NOW are fully MMS compatible, apple has taken out a feature that is compatible with almost all the phones out there. I guess have fun sending videos to yourself via email because your friends cant receive it. (although mine can, and I can play almost any format out there)
skinable to anything i choose? Yep (wisbar advanced desktop can be used to make it look like anything)
TCPMP? yep i want to be able to play xvid, or flac, ogg, AAC no fracking itunes drmed garbage (also TCPMP can do internet radio, video, stream anything really, supports EMBEDED album art which alot of players cant do, A2DP and AVRCP Support. can your iphone do all that?)
weather through my CHOICE in program? yep (i use SPB weather)
my CHOICE of photo viewer? Yep (resco photo viewer)
alterations of the OS to my choosing? Yep (registry editor, etc)
voice command, digit dial, voice browsing, etc? Yep
regular non propriatary USB? Yep, you have no idea how convinient it is to use just any old Mini USB A cable, these cables come with cameras, mp3 players, phones (motorola), etc
turn my phone into USB Mass Storage? yep
swap songs or play songs on any computer, or phone, or car stereo? yep
changeable faceplate? yep
video conferencing? yep
3d graphing calculator? yep (slaughters any TI calc via spacetime)
mappable buttons ? yep
wireless scanner? yep (herecast scanner can see hidden networks as well)
bluejack/snipe capable? yep (theres software out there for fun)
bit torrent client? yep (i HIGHLY doubt the iphone is capable of BT)
WOL capability? yep (Wakeitup is free, i can use it to turn on any computer in my house thru wifi)
voice recorder? yep, record to any format i want,
unit conversion? yep
periodic table? yep
push email and sync with outlook? yep
sync with my WORK environment? yep
choice of mapping software to go with GPS, yep i have pocket streets iguidance, tomtom, gps tuner,
star chart? yep (pocketstars)
stop watch? yep, Pocket Stopwatch by pocket one
ring tones without DRM? i have midi, wma, mp3, wav ring tones, i can freely transfer them to whatever i want, i can also make my own or crop midi files and throw them on, same goes for any format of audio
play music videos or any type of video for ring tone? yep i saw somewhere that you can play a video for an incomming call
VPN? yep, built in with certificate support
terminal services? RDP to windows machines? yep
Word Power point, excel? yep all built in
play guitar chords? yep, i dont play guitar but i have it
universal translator? yep i can ask a question and the pda will convert that sentence into a language of my choice (as long as i have the lang pak) this is thru Etaco UT
dictionary of my choice? yep lextionary, works good
looks? yep everyone asks me what kind of phone I have.

Paying $600 + LOCKED IN CONTRACT + DATA FEES for a phone that cant really do **** ... only apple fan boys I guess

Oh well have fun with your loss, I guess from the facts above, my HTC pisses all over a phone that’s yet to be released from almost 2 years ago.

iphone wil run leopard right?

NO the iphone cannot possibly run full blown OSX of any kind. its a highly scaled down, crippled OS that has limited functionality.

As far as I'm aware, iPhone runs Tiger (or a cut down version of it)

I applaud HTC actually for producing this, a brave move given the iPhone's marketing presence. Innovation deserves attention, no matter who was 'first'.

I hope this spurs other manufacturers to produce something different, I'm getting bored of seeing sliding keypads and stylii as methods of input. I used to own a SE P910i, great phone if you're stationary, horrendous if you're on the move. The keyword is 'mobile' phone.......

LOL HTC produces 90% of the windows mobile phones out there (including the treo's) they also produce non WM phones too.

the HTC touch is a low end budget phone, not really competition to any high end phone. you want to compare apples to apples?

HTC Kaiser Vs iphone Vs Glofish X800 Vs UBiQUiO 503G Vs I-Mate Ultimate 7150

dont compare lowest end stuff to highest end stuff, thats like

whos the fastest? Chevy Aveo Vs Ferarri Enzo

 

[AppleIntelRock]

Honestly, its going to take at least two years for anyone to catch up to the first generation iphone. I don't care how many manufactures produce screen-only phones- even if they have a version of multi-touch, they aren't going to be an iPhone. The GUI IS THE IPHONE. As with the iPod, hardware isn't super hard to catch up with, its the Apple GUI that nobody can even get close to. (not even Microsoft, and they've got almost unlimited financial resources)

 

[yg17]

A bunch of fanboy pwning goodness

There goes my hero, watch him as he goes!


You've said what I've wanted to say for months but I've been too lazy to type out I love my HTC Herald. Beats the pants off the iPhone. And I didn't have to sign 2 years with a crappy carrier to get it

 

[AppleIntelRock]

There goes my hero, watch him as he goes!


You've said what I've wanted to say for months but I've been too lazy to type out I love my HTC Herald. Beats the pants off the iPhone. And I didn't have to sign 2 years with a crappy carrier to get it

Beats the pants off the iPhone?
You've used it? Really!?!? Sweet. Are you, Steve brother or something?
If not, how could you make a comment like that???

 

[pr5owner]

Thanks for sharing.

While that's the best imitator I've seen to date, it's still that...an imitator. I laugh at these imitation phones because they look as desperate as vista trying to imitate Mac OS X. But it's cute. It just makes me want the iPhone more.

LOL the Elf is already out for sale, how can it be a "imitation or clone" of somethig thats not even released, infact, the elf is kind of like my HTC Prophet that came out TWO YEARS AGO, my prophet had edge, and was keyboard less just like the iphone, even 2 years ago it had a 2MP camera, wifi B and G plus BT 2.0

whats funny is bluetooth 2.0 is now out of date, current standard is 2.1 EDR with bluetooth 3.0 being released probably 3rd or 4th Q of this year.

bluetooth 3.0 is 480mbit capable (UWB)

you mac fan boys are hilarious, you dont even know what elses is out there because you are so close minded in thinking apple is the best at everything

 

[/dev/toaster]

Paying $600 + LOCKED IN CONTRACT + DATA FEES for a phone that cant really do **** ... only apple fan boys I guess

Oh well have fun with your loss, I guess from the facts above, my HTC pisses all over a phone that’s yet to be released from almost 2 years ago.

If you want to get a new phone from a carrier you will need to sign an 1 or 2 year agreement. Unless you go prepaid.

Data fees are on almost every smart phone with almost every carrier. You don't get the option, its just how it is.

I will have fun with my iPhone thanks. I won't be losing out on anything. I am more then willing to pay extra for what I want.

If you think that only fanboys will be buying this, you are sadly mistaken. I know a long list of people who actually hate Apple are going to be buying it. Same people who hated iPods for ages, then finally gave in.

 

[pr5owner]

Honestly, its going to take at least two years for anyone to catch up to the first generation iphone. I don't care how many manufactures produce screen-only phones- even if they have a version of multi-touch, they aren't going to be an iPhone. The GUI IS THE IPHONE. As with the iPod, hardware isn't super hard to catch up with, its the Apple GUI that nobody can even get close to. (not even Microsoft, and they've got almost unlimited financial resources)

that NO ONE can get closed too? this is my two year old phone

windows mobile 5/6 has such a large 3rd party support group that anything is possible
the iphone gui isnt even worth copying, its not bad looking, but its not really eyecandy either, i deleted the iphone skin and am now using bluorb (made by some guy)

 

[AppleIntelRock]

that NO ONE can get closed too? this is my two year old phone

You're showing me a horrific looking windows mobile skin running on a horrific device to prove what? A copied windows mobile skin doesn't constitute the iPhone's GUI... Windows vista has tons of copied aspects and doesn't come close to OSX. Also, you said it was made two years ago? Maybe the device was, but that horrific skin sure wasn't. At any-rate to each his own I suppose. I'm glad you think the iPhone's GUI isn't spectacular... since you've used it so often. You can't expect much from Microsoft users I suppose. Too used to monopolized mediocrity.

 

[pr5owner]

If you want to get a new phone from a carrier you will need to sign an 1 or 2 year agreement. Unless you go prepaid.

Data fees are on almost every smart phone with almost every carrier. You don't get the option, its just how it is.

I will have fun with my iPhone thanks. I won't be losing out on anything. I am more then willing to pay extra for what I want.

If you think that only fanboys will be buying this, you are sadly mistaken. I know a long list of people who actually hate Apple are going to be buying it. Same people who hated iPods for ages, then finally gave in.

you DONT need to sign anything, you buy the unlocked (factory unbranded)
you go to your favorite carrier, buy a sim or activate an exsiting sim with the plan you want, and away you go. you dont buy **** from anyone you dont want too.

total cost to get on the network? $25 (sim card costs this much and the guy didnt give me a startup fee) i can cancel anytime i want by just calling the carrier, ZERO fees to cancel. and if i need to, i can cold swap sims if i am going over seas. i can throw in any prepaid sim card since my phone is quadband + multiband UMTS

total cost of the TyTN, including duties, shipping etc, etc? ~$450-$470 this really depends on duties, but for my HTC prophet i paid $17 for duties and taxes because of how the guy did the declaration papers

on another note dont buy from expansys, the rip people off worse than apple does from their website...

You're showing me a horrific looking windows mobile skin running on a horrific device to prove what? A copied windows mobile skin doesn't constitute the iPhone's GUI... Windows vista has tons of copied aspects and doesn't come close to OSX. Also, you said it was made two years ago? Maybe the device was, but that horrific skin sure wasn't. At any-rate to each his own I suppose. I'm glad you think the iPhone's GUI isn't spectacular... since you've used it so often. You can't expect much from Microsoft users I suppose. Too used to monopolized mediocrity.

to prove what? to prove that windows can look like anything you want it too, you are not restricted to anything.
the skin i COULD of made 2 years ago, because its a bunch of icons that you create and place where you want them to be. i got the icons off the apple website, cropped them, resized them, and threw them into a skin for wisbar advanced + desktop. with wisbar or another 3rd party plug in you can make your PDA do whatever the hell you want. ive seen in some iphone preview that you can have mugshots for your contacts, so you just press their face and it will dial their main number. you can do that with wisbar too, but wisbar came out when dell axim X30H's were popular, i dont even know how long ago that was.

htc prophet horrific? lol its one of the smoothest and smallest pda phones out there but running full blown Windows Mobile Professional, if anything the crap that comes out of motorola and HP is horrific, windows mobile standard is crippled , almost as crippled as the iphone

 

[yg17]

Beats the pants off the iPhone?
You've used it? Really!?!? Sweet. Are you, Steve brother or something?
If not, how could you make a comment like that???

My phone does MMS and IM. It's got an awesome UI. Ton of 3rd party stuff for it. Doesn't require any contracts. Unlocked so I can use it with any GSM carrier my heart desires.

So the iPhone has a pretty OS. Big f'in deal. It's lacking stuff that a 500 dollar phone should have. Hell, no MMS, It's lacking stuff that the Noka 6030 I have which was free with contract (and a whopping $30 if you buy it with a T-Mobile prepaid kit) has.

And my data plan is only 20 bucks a month. I hate to see how badly AT&T rapes you with the iPhone data plan.

 

[AppleIntelRock]

My phone does MMS and IM. It's got an awesome UI. Ton of 3rd party stuff for it. Doesn't require any contracts. Unlocked so I can use it with any GSM carrier my heart desires.

So the iPhone has a pretty OS. Big f'in deal. It's lacking stuff that a 500 dollar phone should have. Hell, no MMS, It's lacking stuff that the Noka 6030 I have which was free with contract (and a whopping $30 if you buy it with a T-Mobile prepaid kit) has.

And my data plan is only 20 bucks a month. I hate to see how badly AT&T rapes you with the iPhone data plan.

You have NO IDEA wether or not it has MMS! Also, you can buy the iPhone unlocked... there is a reason they took the 2 year contract required off the ad

 

[Gonzlobo]

And my data plan is only 20 bucks a month. I hate to see how badly AT&T rapes you with the iPhone data plan.

And we're not going to find out the ***** plans until June 28th, because Jobs wants to keep the gd details secret!

 

[bloodycape]

You have NO IDEA wether or not it has MMS! Also, you can buy the iPhone unlocked... there is a reason they took the 2 year contract required off the ad


yes.. he did

Can you show us where it says the iPhone could be unlocked? Because if that is so AT&T(and possibly Apple) is going to be pretty angry, when users are going to let say T-Mobile or in another network that is not AT&T.

 

[yg17]

You have NO IDEA wether or not it has MMS! Also, you can buy the iPhone unlocked... there is a reason they took the 2 year contract required off the ad


yes.. he did

The ****ing training manual that was leaked says it doesn't have MMS. And no contract doesn't mean it will be unlocked. It just means you don't need to sign a damn contract. It will still be locked to ATT and they probably won't unlock it either.