THE MOBILE HORNET … for those who get turned on by mobile devices

THE US$199-iPHONE 3G HAS CAUSED HAVOC TO SMARTPHONE PRICES!

Apple’s announcement of a US$199 price for the new 3G iPhone has shaken up smartphone makers.

HTC’s stock, which is listed in Taiwan, plunged after Apple’s announcement over fears the iPhone’s price will undercut HTC’s smartphone prices.

Do not be misled that the iPhone is so very US$199-cheap.  It is not, when you add the 24-month contract you have to sign to get the iPhone.  Anyway, HTC Asia is going for a price reduction with immediate effect on the following models to combat the share price slide. 

• HTC TyTN II – S$998/- (RM2,599)
• HTC Touch Cruise – S$968/- (RM2,599)
• HTC Touch Dual – S$848/- (RM2,299)
• HTC Touch – S$588/- (RM1,499)
• HTC Shift – S$2,048/- (RM5,499)
• HTC P3300 – S$588/- (RM1,599)

Note: The Malaysian price (RM….) indicated is not a currency conversion price from the Singapore price (S$).  It is the actual revised selling price for Malaysia.

All the above are effective immediately for the Asian market.  There might be some variants in pricing in each country. 

THE PRICE WAR HAS JUST BEGUN…LETS SEE HOW IT WILL END.

The HTC Touch Diamond has many beautiful secrets that enhance the usability of the device: 

• Inside a normal smartphone:
  Dial a number, hold the phone up to your ear and listen to it ring and ring and then wait until they pick up.
  • INSIDE THE TOUCH DIAMOND:
    Dial a number, and just hold the phone. When the person answers, you feel a little vibration. Then hold the phone to your ear and start talking.

• Inside a normal smartphone:
  Difficult to find the mute button when using the phone especially to silence an incoming call.
  • INSIDE THE TOUCH DIAMOND:
    To mute, just flip the phone over and place it face down in order to ignore and silence an incoming call.

• Inside a normal smartphone:
  Stylus just slot in without any additional feature.
  • INSIDE THE TOUCH DIAMOND:
    Stylus is held in by a magnet and snaps into place.  When the stylus is remove, the Touch Diamond wakes up from standby mode and ready to use.

•  Inside a normal smartphone:
  Screen brightness is in constant brightness
  • INSIDE THE TOUCH DIAMOND:
    Screen has the ambient light sensor which adjust the screen brightness according to how bright the environment was.

• Inside a normal smartphone:
  No active light on the Action button
  • INSIDE THE TOUCH DIAMOND:
    There are little LED lights inside the circular part of the action button. They’ll glow and flicker in different patterns to indicate different status states. A slow glow from top to bottom indicates a charging status, while a rapid flicker indicates an alert or announcement.
  • More functions of the Action button:
    Touching the action button with your finger while using the camera will activate auto-focus. Continue to press the button all the way to take a picture. 
    Rubbing the circular area around the action button in a clockwise or counterclockwise motion will zoom in or zoom out in the Photo Album and Opera browser. It will also change the text font sizes in email messages and text messages.

Malaysia is supposed to receive official stocks of the HTC TOUCH DIAMOND by next week.  But some stocks are already available in Malaysia.  (You can get it at Low Yat, Kuala Lumpur or at Gadza, Queensbay, Penang.)  Since UK will only receive their stocks later in the month (as announced by DeviceWire), does it apply to other countries too. If HTC is facing a production issue, I guess some of you have to wait too.

Or are they delaying the shipment after receiving all the orders and see what Apple is offering in the new iPhone before they ship out. A possible last minute tweaking to enhance it?

IT’S OFFICIAL !
THE HTC RAPHAEL WILL NOW BE KNOWN AS
HTC TOUCH PRO

HTC Touch Pro Bridges Mobile Work With Mobile Play

Advanced 3D Touch User Interface, Desktop-like browsing, 5-row sliding QWERTY Keyboard and Window Mobile 6.1 create hybrid business phone.

HTC Corp., today unveiled its advanced next generation business phone, the HTC Touch Pro. Bringing a beautiful new angle to mobile business productivity, the HTC Touch Pro utilizes similar styling and functionality of the highly anticipated Touch Diamond and introduces a variety of business-focused enhancements that make getting work done on the go quick and easy.

“The HTC Touch Pro and Touch Diamond have created a new generation of HTC touch devices that make the promise of the one-hand, one-touch mobile Internet a reality,” said Peter Chou, president and CEO, HTC Corp. “HTC Touch Pro is for those customers that demand the ease of use and enjoyment of TouchFLO 3D and want the styling of the Touch Diamond but also need the powerful mobile business experience that HTC delivers.”

A New Dimension To Touch - One hand, one touch
HTC has taken a great leap forward in touch screen innovation with its 3D touch interface called TouchFLO 3D. TouchFLO 3D provides a stunningly intuitive way to zip through common tasks like messaging, calendar appointments or making calls with just one touch. Delve a little deeper to find that your music, photos, contacts and surfing the web are also responsive to the touch. In addition, the Touch Pro includes a new innovative touch-sensitive control for device interaction.

Making The Mobile Internet Useful and Fun
With the introduction of Touch Diamond and Touch Pro, HTC delivers an entirely new mobile Internet experience that utilizes broadband-like speeds with HSDPA 7.2 Mbps and HSUPA wireless connectivity. Committed to improving Web browsing, HTC provides a new customized mobile Web browser that enables easy viewing and effortless navigation of Websites in the way they are designed to be viewed on a PC. As part of this browsing experience users can zoom and pan Websites with one-hand and automatically view optimized content that has been specially created to fit the display. Turning the device sideways automatically rotates the web page view from a portrait to landscape view.

In addition to Web browsing, the Touch Pro includes an HTC-developed, YouTube application for watching a variety of user generated video content as well as including Google Maps for mobile for mapping and traffic data.

Unmatched Style With Complete Productivity
Like the Touch Diamond, Touch Pro is crafted with precision to fit comfortably in a user’s hand and brings together elegant touch screen response with the direct precision of HTC’s trademark sliding keyboard design. Introducing a new five-row QWERTY keyboard layout that makes typing-intensive tasks like composing email or working on Microsoft Office® documents quick and easy. Built-in TV-out functionality means users can deliver the perfect PowerPoint® presentation from the Touch Pro.

Bursting with Innovation
The Touch Pro delivers an unrivalled combination of features and functionality. The 2.8 inch display provides near-print quality viewing that enables beautiful Web browsing and viewing of photographs. The built-in camera includes an optical auto-focus lens that ensures the photos you take will be clear and consistent. Advanced wireless and auto sensor screen pivoting are just a few of the features that make the Touch Pro experience a stand out.

Availability
The HTC Touch Pro will be available to customers across all major European, Asian and the Middle East markets in late summer. The North American and Latin American versions of Touch Pro will be available later in 2008.

Key HTC Touch Pro Specifications

• Size: 102 x 51 x 18.05mm
• Weight: 165 g
• Connectivity: WCDMA / HSPA: 900/2100MHz. HSDPA 7.2 Mbps and HSUPA
• Operating system: Windows Mobile® 6.1 Professional
• Display: 2.8-inch VGA touch screen
• Camera: 3.2MP, with video calling
• Internal memory: 512 MB flash, 288 MB RAM
• Expansion Slot: microSD memory card (SD 2.0 compatible)
• Keyboard: Slide-out 5 row QWERTY keyboard
• Bluetooth: 2.0 with EDR
• Wireless: WiFi 802.11b/g
• GPS: GPS/AGPS
• Interface: HTC ExtUSB (mini-USB and audio jack and TV OUT* in one; USB 2.0 High-Speed).  *HTC TV OUT cable needed.
• Battery: 1350 mAh
• Talk time: GSM: up to 8 hours
• Standby time: GSM: up to two-weeks
• Chipset: Qualcomm® MSM 7201A 528MHz

If you are living in Asia or happened to be in Hong Kong, you will be able to get the HTC Touch Diamond sooner than those living in the U.S.

The Touch Diamond is being produced and is shipping NOW to Hong Kong.  If you really can’t wait for it to arrive Malaysia or your country, get it from some of those Hong Kong online stores.  For U.S. buyers, it will be wise to wait for the American version to arrive their shores.

This is the Ferrari of all PDA phones 

I can never imagine that the day will come so soon for us to have high-speed wireless connectivity in such a small package.  The Touch Diamond utilizes broadband-like speeds with HSDPA 7.2 Mbps wireless connectivity.

The Touch Diamond comes with a new customized mobile web browser that enables easy viewing and effortless navigation of websites in the way they were designed. As part of this browsing experience, users can  easily zoom and pan websites with one-hand and automatically view optimized content that has been specially created to fit the display.

Turning the device sideways automatically rotates the web page view from a portrait to landscape view. 

More photos at the Malaysian launch on 27 May 2008:

BEHIND CLOSED DOORS

With all the hype on the London launch, the effect on the Malaysian launch today in Kuala Lumpur, has lost much of its lustre.  But anyway, the Touch Diamond is still a diamond in terms of features and you may need a product like the coming 3G iPhone to challenge it.

Delaying the availability of the stocks to June is not a move you will learn from the Sun Tzu Art of War.  Apple is supposed to have stocks IMMEDIATELY after their June 9 launch.  HTC will be wise if they make the  Touch Diamond  available before the iPhone launch date.

“Today we mark a new era in mobile phone evolution, an era where beauty and size integrate with uncompromising innovation at broadband speeds,” said Peter Chou, president and CEO, HTC Corp. “The HTC Touch Diamond will make browsing the Web and using web-enabled applications just as practical and easy to use as making calls.”

The HTC Touch Diamond™ will be available from June 2008 at all authorized resellers at a suggested retail price is RM 2,799.00 (US$848).  I guessed right.  But then SIS, the Malaysian local distributor might have other price structure like what they used to do with all previous HTC products.

DIAMONDS ARE A GIRL’S BEST FRIEND …

SO WHERE ARE THE GIRLS THIS TIME?

In case you are wondering who are these well-dressed gentlemen in the photo.  Here are their positions:

• SK Wong
  • Country Manager, HTC Malaysia
• Melvin Chua
  • Product Marketing Manager, South East Asia HTC
• Frank Teh
  • Managing Director of SiS Distribution (M) Sdn Bhd

HTC  usually launch their new products using female models but these were absent in the launch at London and Malaysia.  Were they a distraction to the features of the new products launch?  Or they were actually unnecessary to be there.  Where unboxing a new device is so fascinating, I guess the ladies (no offence meant) don’t play an important part in new mobile device launches, especially in the world of gadget-crazy guys.

Here are the official specs for the HTC Touch Diamond:

• Processor Qualcomm® MSM7201A™ 528 MHz
• Operating system Windows Mobile® 6.1 Professional
• Memory ROM: 256MB
• RAM: 192MB
• Internal storage: 4 GB
• Dimensions 102 mm (L) X 51 mm (W) X 11.35 mm (T)
• Weight 110 g (with battery)
• Display 2.8-inch TFT-LCD flat touch-sensitive screen with VGA resolution
• Network HSDPA/WCDMA:
  • 1. Europe/Asia: 900/2100 MHz
  • 2. Up to 384 kbps upload and 7.2 Mbps for download
• Tri-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE:
  • Europe/Asia:900/1800/1900 MHz
    (Band frequency and data speed are operator dependent.)
• Device Control TouchFLO™ 3D
• Touch-sensitive navigation control
• GPS Internal GPS antenna
• Connectivity Bluetooth® 2.0 with EDR, A2DP, and AVRCP
• Wi-Fi®: IEEE 802.11 b/g
• HTC ExtUSB™ (11-pin mini-USB 2.0 and audio jack in one)
• Camera Main camera: 3.2 megapixel color camera with auto focus
• Second camera: VGA CMOS color camera
• Audio Built-in microphone, speaker and FM radio with RDS
• Ring tone supported formats:
  • 1. MP3, AAC, AAC+, WMA, WAV, and AMR-NB
  • 2. 40 polyphonic and Standard MIDI format 0 and 1 (SMF)/SP MIDI
• Battery Rechargeable Lithium-ion or Lithium-ion polymer battery
  • Capacity: 900 mAh
  • Talk time:
    • 1. Up to 270 minutes for WCDMA
    • 2. Up to 330 minutes for GSM
  • Standby time:
    • 1. Up to 396 hours for WCDMA
    • 2. Up to 285 hours for GSM
• Video call time: Up to 145 minutes for WCDMA
  (The above are subject to network and phone usage.)
• AC Adapter Voltage range/frequency: 100 ~ 240V AC, 50/60 Hz
• DC output: 5V and 1A
• Value Added Applications  TouchFLO™ 3D, Microsoft® Office Outlook® Mobile, Internet Explorer® Mobile, Opera Browser, Microsoft® Office Mobile (Microsoft® Office Word Mobile, Microsoft® Office Excel® Mobile, Microsoft® Office PowerPoint® Mobile, Microsoft® OneNote Mobile), Windows Media® Player 10 Mobile, Windows Live™, Adobe Reader LE, Adobe Flash Lite, ZIP, Comm Manager, Task Manager, Audio Manager, Audio Booster, MP3 Trimmer, FM Radio, YouTube, Connection Setup, Cyberon Voice Commander, 3G Video Telephony, Internet Sharing, Album, Live HTC Home™, RSS Hub, Quick GPS, WorldCard Mobile(CD), Sprite Backup(CD), Chinese support through CE-Star (CD), Talking Dictionary (CD)

If you look at the prices on launch day, Malaysians might be  getting a raw deal if the rumoured price of RM2,799 is to be accepted.  Singapore is at RM2,602 and India at RM2,074.  Lets hope the Malaysian rumoured price be just a rumour and the actual launch day price  will be somewhere below RM2,600.  I must say that the price of RM2,799 is too close to the new price of RM2,888 for the TyTN II, not forgetting that the TyTN II comes with a keyboard and future upgrade to Windows Mobile 6.1.  Someone is accepting pre-orders for the Touch Diamond at RM2,750 in Malaysia prior to launch day.

The price in India is at a low RM2,074.  This is because it is a modified version running on EDGE and not 3G.

HTC Touch Diamond is now available in India exclusively on the Airtel network.  The HTC Touch Diamond will be available through Airtel for Rs27,500 (RM2,074.96 or US$642.90) at all authorized HTC resellers.

In Malaysia, the HTC Touch Diamond will be launched at 10:30am on  Tuesday 27 May 2008 in Kuala Lumpur.  Just to confirm that it is not a rumour but a fact, here is the invitation card I received from HTC :

(Entry is by invitation only)

The launch is in progress right now at Shangri-La Hotel, Singapore.  Malaysians have to wait for the Kuala Lumpur launch on 27 May 2008.

The HTC Touch Diamond will be available from June 2008 at all authorized resellers in Singapore at a suggested retail price of S$1,098 (inclusive of 7% GST) which is equivalent to RM2,602.40 or US$806.32.

View this video clip and see how the HTC Touch Diamond will dazzle your eyes: