HTC World Press Event Wrap Up
It’s been quite a day here in London with HTC rolling out the red carpet treatment in recognition of the launch of their new Touch Diamond handset. We’ll certainly be the first to admit that we were a bit underwhelmed by the Touch Diamond announcement when it first hit. The phone has been circulating the web for a week or two now, and we were really hoping that the company would announce a full line of handsets, including the rumored Raphael with a full QWERTY keyboard. While we would still like to have seen a bit more from the Taiwanese company today, upon reflection, we think that the launch is certainly deserving of merit and accolade.
The TouchFLO 3D interface is, in a word, amazing. If you thought the original TouchFLO skin was impressive (or even unimpressive) than you’re in for a big surprise here. This is, without a doubt, the most un-Windows Mobile-like Windows Mobile interface we’ve ever seen, and that’s a good thing. The graphics, which rely on their own 3D accelerator chip, are stunning, and the entire user experience is exceptionally well thought through. Hyper-intuitive design is the term than comes to mind, with most every action, from contact scrolling to music selection, thought through from the perspective of a uninformed user. It’s not dumbed down, it’s just simple and straight forward. One of the most impressive features is the way that the browser automatically resizes zoomed chunks of text for easy reading and consumption. Think Mobile Safari, but even more readable. The introduction of the Touch Diamond before the Raphael or Touch Pro Dual also makes sense, as HTC is clearly trying to showcase the innovations they’ve made in the Touch UI arena before moving on to more extensive hardware revisions. That’s not to say we wouldn’t have loved a TyTN III or Mogul II announcement, but when viewed from a marketing and customer orientation perspective, their process starts to make a bit more sense.
Again, we would have loved to see more new stuff today — Android, Raphael, etc, but we’re confident that HTC is making some pretty good moves and laying a solid foundation for their future product lines. Was the event today worthy of the hype? Maybe not, but it’s by no means the misstep we initially thought it to be.
Sweet picture. You still using a razr to take pictures?
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thank you iPhone for making all the other phone makers better. I salute you
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umm great for htc, this device is cool but umm when you actually do something with the phone thats functional, it still looks like winmo…
chalk up another lame ass phone with a pretty wrapping, (I’m looking at you xperia) that could have so much potential if it had a killer os
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Yes, thank you Apple, for always pushing the envelope, yet maintaining communist-like control over everything so as to make yourself a niche-only player.
Now the open-source folks are catching up…and we all benefit. Even the iPhone fan-boys.
Next up — Android.
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wow. are u serious about the browser part. its opera 9. thats it. the rest is the manila interface us hackers have had for a while now. this is just a new version thats speedier and black.
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Hey does anyone know what 3D chip is used in this? Is it ATI/AMD, or NVIDIA, or what?
I think it’s awesome that M$ is letting HTC develop their own front-end on WinMo. That’s a lot of responsibility for a handset manufacturer, (they’re competing with Apple, which (arguably) primarily makes operating systems and interfaces) but I think it looks like they have a good chance at success - defined as changing the status quo even further in the post-iPhone era for mobile interfaces.
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I hope HTC designs an equally impressive UI for the Android Dream phone, even though I believe the TouchFLO 3D is untoppable.
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No, the manila interface at the XDA forum is only skin deep at the moment. I’m sure many would want to try hard to port it or clone it. Just goes to show this TouchFLO 3D has enormous appeal. Salute HTC for a job well done. Keep on the good work. Now bring on the Raphael this Nov as that is when my contract expires.
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I hope HTC upped their game since I last trolled through their horribly coded .dlls.
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@andrewkfromaz: Probably none of those, I’m guessing Imageon like the other HTCs.
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All I’m gonna say is Xperia X1 or Touch Diamond?
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