Windows-Based iPhone Rival for Business Users

MsManhattan writes "High Tech Computer Corp. (HTC) has unveiled a touch-screen mobile device that offers many of the same features as the iPhone but with an emphasis on business applications vs. entertainment value. The HTC Touch is based on Microsoft's Windows Mobile 6 Professional OS and features a 2.8-inch touch screen offering access to emails, contacts and appointments. But unlike the iPhone, which will feature large internal flash memory capacity for music and movie storage, the HTC Touch offers a microSD drive, and a 1G-byte microSD card comes with the handset."

Comments

Interface, not features

[virgil_disgr4ce]

I'm going to reiterate what I said yesterday about the iPhone:

It's not features that will make or break a smartphone device as the iPhone comes out, it's the ingenuity of the interface. Just because this has a touch-screen doesn't mean it's going to be a fraction as intuitive or usable for the average person. Windows Mobile is not a platform based on new ideas. --Ted

Picture

[pubjames]

Here you go

Actual product link:

[EnglishTim]

http://www.htctouch.com/

To be honest, you might as well say all Windows Mobile based phones are iPhone rivals. I would prefer to say it's just a competitor in the smartphone space, as iPhone will be when it arrives.

I own an earlier HTC WM5 smartphone model, and I'm guessing that despite having a new swish frontend, it'll still be not quite as nice to use as the iPhone will be. However, the big draw is that being Windows Mobile based, you'll be able to run any software you want on it without having to go through Apple, unlike the iPhone.

Re:Pictures!

[ajanp]

Random Pics: HTC Touch iPHONE

Re:Buyer beware...

[DWIM]

This is not informative unless you can link to evidence that shows there is a general problem with the product. Your post alone is an anecdote. If, say, 10% of these phones suffer the same problem as yours did, that would be informative. Otherwise, there is no useful information here.

Re:iPhone not out yet...

[svendsen]

"prestige"

Your kidding me right? Nobel laureates have prestige. Having an apple product which anyone can buy does not give you prestige. In fact I can't think of any generic tech consumer item which would give you any prestige. You know what I think when I see someone with a windows machine, apple, linux, etc. They have a computer good for them how nice.

Re:Pictures!

[p0tat03]

They STILL don't get it, do they?

Look at that HTC Touch pic. See those two buttons on the bottom? This is proof conclusive, to me anyway, that these guys just don't get it. You have a touch screen for God's sake, why in the world are you still dealing with the "binary choice" UI of old phones? That is absolutely one thing I despise the most about current cell phone UI - they have all adopted the two-button interface. For every menu you are in, there are only ever two choices (unless you want to risk bringing up yet another menu). Sure, this is a limitation due to hardware, so why are we keeping it now that we have the freedom to allow the user to interact in ANY way with the device?

Re:Price ?

[Anonymous Coward]

It costs 354.95 GBP SIM-free, or nothing with a 12 month / 45 GBP contract. As per www.expansys.com

Talk about life imitating art...

[Basilius]

...this plays straight into the whole "Hi, I'm a Mac. And I'm a PC" ads. In fact, it fits so well it smells like a joke.

"iPhone is to much fun to get work done. We must have a windows-based 'business' equivalent."

Please. Enough already.

Rival?

[Scrameustache]

You misspelled "iPhone Killer"...

And since it isn't even out yet, I guess that would be an iPhone Aborter.

QVGA!

[ricklow]

The screen resolution of the HTC device is only QVGA: 320 x 240. The iPhone is 320 x 480 (half VGA). This is a major difference in usability.

After trying to switch from a Palm TX (320 x 480) to a Windows Mobile QVGA PDA, one thing that stopped me was the beautiful screen on the Palm vs. the QVGA on the WM5 device.

Re:iPhone not out yet...

[MatchbooksAndSarcasm]

Windows Mobile, because who ever said that only desktop devices should have to be hard-rebooted on a daily basis?

This device isn't multi-touch

[arsheive]

So how is it going to rival the iPhone? From htc.com: "Building on its rich ten year history of mobile phone innovations, the HTC Touch(TM) represents extensive research and development and the conviction that fingertip control will enable more efficient, natural and intuitive touch screen navigation. The groundbreaking HTC Touch(TM) offers a new and unique way of controlling touch screen-based devices by recognising and responding to the sweep of a finger across the screen. It is even intelligent enough to distinguish between finger and stylus input and then respond accordingly." So it has some nice features allowing the user to use single-touch more effectively. This does not come close to the wow factor and the _crazy_ levels of input freedom provided by a multi-touch interface.

Re:Pictures!

[zhenya00]

Well, for anyone who has actually ever tried to use a touch screen in cold weather, with wet or dirty hands, or while driving, there are a TON of reasons why physical buttons (or at least the option of a stylus) are better than a touch screen. This is one aspect of the iphone that I'm really interested to see shake out in the real world.

Re:Pictures!

[walt-sjc]

You are right. There is no need for Yes/No on Windows Mobile where the only REAL option is: "Execute text message as code? Yes / Yes"

Re:For working geeks as opposed to gadget crazed

[Reaperducer]

Call me a hater

OK, you're a hater. Or more accurately, as someone entrenched in a dying platform ("Palm software engineer") you don't understand that the world is moving on without you.

you'd be crazy to buy a phone now that doesn't have 3G.

Why? Most phones in people's hands right now aren't 3G. Most of the United States, where the iPhone will be released later this month doesn't have 3G service. Jobs has already said in front of hundreds of people that the 3G version will be next. It makes sense that it will coincide with the release of the European iPhone which (IIRC) is set for this fall. If 3G is such a necessity for you, wait six months and import one. Problem solved.

if I want to make an mp3 into my ringtones, the 8525 says "go right ahead!" On the Iphone, you have to buy ringtones from ITMS.

You must have gone from Palm engineer to Microsoft engineer, because this is pure FUD. Please provide documentation that shows that iPhone ringtones must be purchased from iTunes. The phone's not out, so you have no idea what it requires. Since the iPhone syncs with iTunes and iTunes handles non-ITMS music just fine, it's only logical to assume that I can use my already-ripped-from-CD-into-iTunes music as a ringtone. You have provided no convincing evidence to the contrary. You're just so used to a culture of vendor lock-in that you don't understand the Mac biosphere. Yes, there is a certain amount of lock-in with the hardware, but Apple is all about pioneering and implementation of standards. It's Verizon and the other legacy telcos that lock people out of the features of their phones (like Bluetooth) in order to extract money from them, not Apple.

Find someone who has a 3G phone, and try using google maps for mobile with a super highspeed connection.

Like the built-in WiFi that the iPhone has? We've all seen Jobs and others demoing Google Maps on the iPhone and it's slick. And the Google integration is specialized for the iPhone. Remember the location thingy? If you haven't watched the demo video, you should.

SSH over 3G is pretty damn good.

I SSH over GPRS every day. It's pretty damn good, too. You don't need broadband for text applications.

I wanted to sync my address book and calendar from my device with my gmail account. Both WM5 and Google are open APIs! So I'm writing it (which means it will suck, but still). Apple does not to seem to want you to be able to do that.

Again, the phone's not out. How do you know it can't? More accurately, how do you know that a month from now someone won't write an iSync plug-in that enables what you want? There are entire companies that specialize in this (The Missing Sync comes to mind). I'm not sure how you "seem" to know what Apple wants. Referencing my above point, Google appears to be interested in the iPhone. Maybe that interest expands beyond maps. I don't know. And neither do you.

Windows Mobile Platform is MUCH more open than the IPhone.

According to the New York Times, Apple is working on a way to allow developers to port their applications to the iPhone. I don't see how Windows is MUCH more open, other than the fact that it's had a five year head start.

When I worked at Palm we worked HARD to court independent developers, who cranked out great apps for the Palm platform.

Good for you. Do you want a cookie? Palm is worse than dead. It's a zombie that doesn't even know it's dead. I loved my original US Robotics Palm 1000. I loved my IIIe. I bought my wife an M100. But Palm stagnated. It's over. Get over it.

when I think of the IPhone I think NO CARRIER.

90% of the world doesn't know what "NO CARRIER" means anymore. We've all gone broadband. Most were born after the modem market shriveled up. You're just demonstrating that you're another Microsoft dinosaur that doesn't get it.