Hey Surur, Your iPhone Killer is Popular!

[Kupe#WP]

According to this article, HTC's Touch sales are keeping pace with the iPhone. I wonder how they count their sales numbers?

Of course, the iPhone hasn't spread to Europe/Asia yet which is where HTC made their Touch sales. Still, HTC is releasing their second generation Touch this month (with HSDPA!) so they're in the game for keeps. I wonder if iPhone's Euro-sales will change the pace much.

 

[Certs]

The Touch was like half the price too, if not 1/3. So you can't compare too much..

 

[Kupe#WP]

The Touch was like half the price too, if not 1/3. So you can't compare too much..

I know - and the Touch does more too, so you really can't compare.

 

[surur]

Its lucky that I popped in here, as I have not read phonedifferent for at least 2 weeks. The Touch is doing surprisingly well, despite being rather under-specified. Its successors appear to be much better and contain more of the iPhone-type wow features which will ensure HTC continue to remain competitive in this market.
http://www.shinyshiny.tv/2007/10/shiny_video_pre_7.html

Surur

 

[marcol]

I know - and the Touch does more too, so you really can't compare.

TouchFlo, five-way, stylus... it certainly has more usage paradigms

 

[surur]

So Marcol, are you getting an iPhone next month?

Surur

 

[oalvarez]

if HTC comes to market with a suretype keyboard on its Touch Duo, watch out...:thumbsup:

 

[marcol]

So Marcol, are you getting an iPhone next month?

The sensible thing to do of course is to wait - for my contract to finish, for 3G, for 16 GB - but heck you can wait forever for the next best thing. I've never paid up a contract before but I'm mighty tempted to do so this time, and in the end it's not *that* expensive.

I'm very sure I would go for it if I could be certain of an easy (i.e. no second contract) upgrade to a later model. I was wondering this out loud over at MacRumors the other day, but (unsurprisingly) no one had any real idea what Apple's upgrade policy will be.

Here's my post from there (more wishful thinking than anything else really):

Is this Apple's long-term model for selling the iPhone?

Sorry if this has been discussed before.

It used to be that (I'm talking from a UK perspective) we'd either:

1) Sign a 12 or 18-month contract with a service provider (Vodafone, O2, Orange, T-Mobile etc) and get a highly subsidised phone. The phone would almost always be SIM locked to the provider, have carrier logos and awful carrier-specific (sometimes crippled) software/firmware.

2) Buy an unlocked, unsubsidised phone and choose any contract with any provider (or use it with a non-contract SIM - 'Pay as you go').

With the iPhone Apple (and it's partners) gave us a third option:

3) A locked, unsubsidised phone only useable with an 18 or 24-month contract.

Branding and crippling aside, this seems like the worst of both worlds (you have to have a contract but there's no handset subsidy to sweeten the deal) but I'm wondering if there isn't an upside too. Specifically, I'm wondering how upgrades will work. Let's say I buy an iPhone in the UK on November the 9th but then at some point before my 18-month contract with O2 expires Apple produce a much better, updated version (3G, more storage, GPS, whatever). Question is, will I just be able to nip along to the local Apple/O2/CPW shop, buy the new phone, take it home, swap the SIM in from my old iPhone, connect up to iTunes and be good to go - i.e no new contract need be signed?

What brought this to mind was reading this thread started by Jade Cambell:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=364313

Jade mentions that replacing a defective phone involves just that: take it home, swap the SIM connect to iTunes and iTunes asks 'do you want to replace the old phone with the new one on the same line?'

I guess it's doubtful if anyone here will have a definitive answer to this, but any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. It seems to me this way of upgrading would be good for all concerned: I get the latest and greatest iPhone, Apple get to sell me a second phone during the contract period and O2 get a customer that's highly likely to extend his contract beyond the original end date (because that's the only way for me to keep using my new all-singing, all-dancing iPhone).​

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=364447


In some ways the iPhone does seem like a big leap forward (though I wouldn't care to speculate on how many years ahead it might be ) and I really do fancy a piece of that. Each time I use my E61 I think what am I doing with this silly clunky interface (which I used to think was pretty good - pre-iPhone)? Of course then I use 3G or TomTom (probably the only third-party app I'd really miss) and I think 'ah, that's why'. Still, I have Wifi at home and work and the whole of the centre of Norwich is bathed in a (free) Wifi network - and I could always buy a TomTom PND of course.

So I don't really know, but short answer: probably!

 

[surur]

I'm sure, as the hardware is unsubsidized, you would be able to upgrade to the next model without having to renew your contract.

Surur

 

[marcol]

if HTC comes to market with a suretype keyboard on its Touch Duo, watch out...:thumbsup:

If they really want to hit Apple in its core iPhone market I suspect they're going to have to start producing small(ish) devices with bigger, higher res screens. 2.x inch, 240 x 320 really isn't great for photos and is pretty awful for video (IMO, and I speak as a user of a 2.x inch, 240 x 320 screen device). That said I do think HTC are heading in the right direction with TouchFLO. I'm just not sure how far they can go in that direction - I have my doubts that they'll ever get it to a point where they can ship devices without a stylus and I'm also not sure what will happen when photon arrives. If photon gives us a great new touch interface, will TouchFLO just be consigned to the bin of nice ideas? Not keen to wander up that potentially blind alley myself.

 

[marcol]

I'm sure, as the hardware is unsubsidized, you would be able to upgrade to the next model without having to renew your contract.

Now if I could just hear Steve Jobs or Matthew Key say that. Recent events have shaken my confidence in Apple's customer friendliness a fair bit. The brutal way the 1.1.1 upgrade has bricked hacked phones is pretty unpleasant, and I'm very far from convinced that it was (technically) necessary to do that. Was it really impossible to devise a system where the update just restored the device to an unhacked, locked (factory) condition?

 

[oalvarez]

If they really want to hit Apple in its core iPhone market I suspect they're going to have to start producing small(ish) devices with bigger, higher res screens. 2.x inch, 240 x 320 really isn't great for photos and is pretty awful for video (IMO, and I speak as a user of a 2.x inch, 240 x 320 screen device). That said I do think HTC are heading in the right direction with TouchFLO. I'm just not sure how far they can go in that direction - I have my doubts that they'll ever get it to a point where they can ship devices without a stylus and I'm also not sure what will happen when photon arrives. If photon gives us a great new touch interface, will TouchFLO just be consigned to the bin of nice ideas? Not keen to wander up that potentially blind alley myself.

i didn't want to imply that it would be an iPhone killer but merely a good looking device with many smartphone capabilities. in many ways i think the iPhone is in a league of its own, i really don't think anything comes close in terms of product design and fit and finish. i'm quite happy with mine. :thumbsup:

 

[marcol]

Sorry I misinterpreted. Not sure about this whole 'iPhone killer' thing. Seems to me the likely outcome is an expansion of the market in that direction with several product lines doing well. In fact, I'm not not sure we've even really seen a 'Treo killer' yet either - if the Treo dies it'll probably more akin to suicide than murder

 

[surur]

Actually we should soon know how the iPhone fares in a competitive environment. Over the next 3 months it will be going up againt a veriety of better specified devices (the LG Viewty especially is nice, and will be cheaper).

Surur

 

[marcol]

Over the next 3 months it will be going up againt a veriety of better specified devices (the LG Viewty especially is nice, and will be cheaper).

Like I was saying about 240x320 screens!!! Apart from that, lack of Wifi and being a bit fat it the hardware does look nice. Not sure about the software. Browser looks great, but I couldn't tell from the video if it even has email or calendar apps. Fish is cool

EDIT. Actually on second viewing I did manage to spot email and calendar apps. Would be nice to know more about those - IMAP and Exchange mail (bound to have POP I guess)? What does the Calendar sync with (probably not iCal!)?

 

[surur]

Like I was saying about 240x320 screens!!! Apart from that, lack of Wifi and being a bit fat it the hardware does look nice. Not sure about the software. Browser looks great, but I couldn't tell from the video if it even has email or calendar apps. Fish is cool

EDIT. Actually on second viewing I did manage to spot email and calendar apps. Would be nice to know more about those - IMAP and Exchange mail (bound to have POP I guess)? What does the Calendar sync with (probably not iCal!)?

Its a feature phone, not smartphone. Its main feature is its 5 Megapixel camera, and it has nice picture viewing software and video editing features on the device, including YouTube integration. It should go down a bomb with the kids. Its a 3G device, which is why lack of WIFI is forgivable.

Surur

 

[oalvarez]

lack of wi-fi is not forgiveable. haven't you read any Treo threads in your lifetime?