HTC’s Touch Diamond and Raphael don’t like the U.S.
This is a semi-rant, but can someone tell me why of all manufacturers, HTC has started to make devices that are no longer quad-band, and no longer have tri-band HSDPA? They were one of the first to finally get it right and support all bands, even back in the day with the original TyTN. From then on, almost every professional HTC device was quad-band and let us Americanos rock out with HSDPA. Can someone enlighten us? Why has the number one Windows Mobile manufacturer in the world removed such an essential feature from their new lineup? They pulled a Nokia and will start offering localized devices with local GSM bands. Oh yeah, the XPERIA, made by HTC, will be quad-band and offer tri-band UMTS/HSDPA. This, my friends, is not a step in the right direction…
UPDATE: HTC hit us up and said that size constraints with the Touch Diamond was they weren’t offering a quad-band EDGE and tri-band HSDPA device…
You always have option yo get any phone you want but it has to be unlocked and set to desired network. just have to get it unlocked
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@ David Ciccone
You are incorrect. The HTC TyTN was quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE and tri-band UMTS/HSPDA.
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Hi Folks - Quite the hot thread on June 1! …..
Question: will the existing / earlier generation unlocked HTC 3G Triband phones work on ATT 3G network> I thought ATT had proprietary network for 3G. What about other brands?
Also, will they work on the European 3G systems with an activated SIM card being the only requirement to function?
Thanks from a relative noob filtering through the morass on info! Keep up the great work.
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@Laura,
I’m afraid you have not been paying full attention. The Raphael was already announced by T-Mobile Germany as the MDA Vario IV, it is a tri-band GSM single band HSDPA phone. What you found was a rumored internal Sprint document that has not been confirmed. While a CMDA version may ultimately be picked up by Sprint this device will launch as GSM first in Europe and Asia.
Next time do a little more research before you try to make people look stupid, as it stands right now you are the one who is looking a bit clueless. I’d say apologies to all are in order.
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I feel you BG, I really do…
But blaming HTC? Not so sure about that one. Fact: the North American wireless market is a shit show. The majority of device sales are done through carriers, and due to ridiculous, uncompetitive pricing for both devices and service, the “average” North American wireless consumer ends up signing a 2/3 year contract (Canadian providers LOVE the 3 year contract) for a “free” low end, boring device that WOULD cost $250 unlocked, but due to supply and carrier interference, ends up selling for much more than that.
Quad band support might not cost much at all, as compared to tri band, but a small cost increase will piss off a majority of HTC’s customer base, seeing as how they couldn’t give less of a shit about 850GSM. Pissing off a big chunk of your market in order to appease enthousiasts in North America is a bad business plan when you take into account the rest of the clusterfuck that is this market. Essentially, a cost increase may decrease HTC’s sales in their important Euro/Asian markets, and that decrease may not be made up for by NA sales. Finally, take into account the ways in which North America has fucked with GSM standards, and you can really kinda see why support for 850GSM is kinda.. not so good.
But still, I’m getting tired of having a crappier and crappier selection of phones too.
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I have not read all the comments but i think there’s a two part answer:
1. the US market is not the money maker that it may appear to be compared to the asian & euro markets. Why fight to gain marketshare in the Us when you can grow stronger in places where HTC can make alot of money and not have to work through the horrible US carriers.
2. their primary business is manufacturing devices, they have several US clients that sell devices under other names. those clients pay them very well and do not want HTC to be a competitor in the US market. HTC looks at the situation according to my #1 and allows their clients to limit their brand and products in the US.
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@specced,
While your rant about phone selection here is justified, your reasoning for HTC’s omission of the 850 band could not be more off. Please see my post on the first page for the real reason. In short, its not a matter of production cost, nor does it have anything to do with pissing off the European/Asian market. In fact, Europeans and Asians want their phones to have the 850 band for when they travel here. The bottom line is that its all about not wanting to piss off AT&T.
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Talk to the yahoos at FCC about 20 years ago if you want to get to the source of this problem. The real issue is that when Europe went to digital cellular service (with basic GSM) in the early 90’s on the 900 and 1800 bands, our FCC decided that we had to be different. We just *had* to keep our digital services on the same frequency (850) jas our analog services, didn’t we….argh! That’s the root of the problem….the desire to be be different and not follow a standard-setter.
Then you can once again, a decade or so later, blame the FCC as it further sliced and diced spectrum so that today we have to have fully 4 bands (850, 1700, 1900, 2100+) to support the bandwidth needed for adequate US 3G coverage and market competition (i.e. 4 carriers). [yes the 2100 is for the uplink on AWS]
Kevin Martin’s one of the first half-sensible FCC commissioners in a while, but it’s all a bit late for him to unwind this mess.
Sigh….
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Wow, eight to ten years ago I so wished we in Australia had the pricing and features that Americans had from their carriers.
What happened??? You guys are getting royally screwed lately (from your own phone companies).
Kevin
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Do you honestly think the pricing sucks? We may not have the best phones, but I definitely do think we have the best value with regards to service. Brits are paying the same number for the same amount of minutes and messages as us, but of course their currency is twice as much. A similar scenario with continental Europe.
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I was absolutely crazy to buy a Diamond but after the publish of official specs I got really frustrated: my carrier in Brazil works on 850Mhz GSM/GPRS/EDGE freqüency and its HSDPA will work in 2100Mhz. So… no Diamond for me!!!
Gosh, I really have no idea why make models instead of A model.
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This is not good. I would think Microsoft would be kind of ticked at this seeing as how Htc sells the most WinMo phones. I think will eventually give the advantage to apple and google. But time will tell. With the notion of there being no Raphael offered in the US, I am now considering the iPhone a lot more.
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Well ain’t that a bitch. I mean that just sucks head, shaft, and balls. Like sucks, strokes, and jiggles. HTC gotta get it right, like before. I mean they can’ start being like Palm and going ass to mouth all the time.
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Considering all, we probably will end up with the X1 and the Diamond or Raphael here in the States. The X1 has had a couple of press shots and video shoots with AT&T content all over it and also supposedly has a 1700MHz version coming. T-Mo USA salespeople did on separate occasions mention to me and other people on cellphonesignal.com mention that HTC was making an iPhone-like device for T-Mo. I guess that last part could’ve just been a lucky guess on their part, but who knows. Either way, the X1 is a great alternative to the Raphael and vice versa.
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@ wesrubix: Sorry sir, but you don’t know your ass from your elbow. Do some research on carriers abroad (and no cherry picking) and compare to American carriers.
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About ten minutes ago, Sony Ericsson was showing quad band gsm/edge and five-band UMTS support in their Xperia X1 online specifications. Although final specifications may change, it would seem that this phone would likely do UMTS auto-banding and therefore potentially support both ATT and T-mobile 3G networks in the US.
/ckh
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@john j, you are incorrect. You can’t get a phone unlocked and make it work on your frequency when it doesn’t have the correct frequency/band to begin with. Unlocking it doesn’t give it hsdpa on the 850mHz band…..
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There is a GSM/UMTS/HSDPA Raphael slated for AT&T. Quadband GSM and Triband UMTS/HSDPA. Look for it around Christmas. The original touch was also only tri-band for overseas.
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@charles, the white paper than just came out deleted the 1700mHz band for Tmobile in it’s tests so it’s doubtful we’ll see that one on Tmo usa.
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&AT&T Info, you got a source for that? we are going to need more than an anon posting on BGR for that to be believed…….I seriously doubt they’d put the Raphael up against the X1 so soon.
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HTC may be looking to “support” those markets whose providers support HTC–more oversees than in the U.S.A.
Until HTC uses something better than the current software rendering for video (as on AT&T Tilt), they might as well stay out of my market.
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The reason is that HTC is going to be selling unbranded devices in the US for a cheaper price than they will be selling them in Europe. If they included all bands, then there would be a lot of importing the same device from the US for cheaper.
Also many international companies just throw their products out on European markets with little strategy and just see what happens. In the US they like to have a “plan” and get everything in place before they unleash their goods. This sometimes results in missed oppertunities and delays to the consumer.
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