HTC will today launch the Australian version of their Touch HD smartphone with a large 3.8-inch touch screen based on the Windows Mobile platform. However, there is no news on the much anticipated Google Android phone with insiders saying that the device has been delayed due to HTC working on a major redesign over the model that is currently being sold in the USA and that Australia could be the first Country in the world to get the new phone due to Telstra’s fast Next G Network.
The new HTC Touch HD which is being launched today runs its own TouchFLO 3D menu interface running on the old Windows Mobile OS. (See story on new Windows OS due later this year).
Hugh Bradlow the head of Research and Development at Telstra told SmartHouse and ChannelNews at the recent CES Show that he had seen the new HTC Google Android phone and that it was “An excellent phone” which he considered superior to the new Palm Pre which is expected in Australia later this year.
We have also been told that the new phone will be one of the fastest in the world and that Telstra will launch it running at 21Mbs on their NextG network. This will suit the 850MHz 3G technologies used by Telstra 3G the G1 mainly uses the 2100MHz band for HSPA services.
It also has the largest the largest screen ever offered by HTC. There is also speculation that there will be a another new HTC model later this year that will have a 7″ screen and be more a mini Netbook than mobile phone.
According to Computer Daily News in the USA the first HTC powered by Google’s Android operating system, has taken a pasting in the US marketplace at the hands of Apple’s 3G iPhone.
Apple and its sole US carrier AT&T sold 1.75 million iPhone in the fourth quarter of 2008, almost six times the 300,000 G1s sold by T-Mobile, also a sole carrier, according to a Morgan Stanley survey.
Meanwhile T-Mobile says it will begin selling the G1 in three more European countries Netherlands, Czech Republic and Austria- by the end of January. It is already available in Britain.
There has been no further news of an Australian launch though HTC Australia executives have been eager to set up a deal. Some observers believe the company is awaiting an improved G2 model, which would suit the 850MHz 3G te4chnology used by Telstra 3G the G1 mainly uses the 2100MHz band for HSPA services.
