Orange Will Also Offer HTC's 'Universal' Pocket PC Phone

[Jonathon Watkins]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/02/15/orange_htc_universal/' target='_blank'>http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/0..._htc_universal/</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Orange has confirmed that it will release later this year a Windows Mobile-based handset engineered for 3G networks and that the device will be produced by HTC. The announcement . . . almost certainly refers to 'Universal', HTC's upcoming palmtop/phone that T-Mobile has already said it will offer as the MDA IV. Universal is the world's first Windows Mobile device to provide 3G compatibility. It's a PDA-sized product with a 640 x 480 display that can be swivelled and rotated round to allow the unit to be operated either as a tablet or as a clamshell. The unit sports a QWERTY keyboard, stereo speakers and twin digital cameras for still photography and video-calls."</i><br /><br />Well, this now means that <a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/02/28/vodafone_htc_universal/">Vodaphone</a>, <a href="http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000850034266/">T-Mobile</a> and Orange are all going to offer this great Pocket PC with embedded phone. The more the merrier. I am really looking forward to getting hold of one and I know many of you guys are too. :-)

[Philip Colmer]

When did the Vodafone announcement happen? They are our corporate mobile provider so I was keen on seeing what they would do about this model.

--Philip

[ChristopherTD]

It certainly looks appealing, but I have almost decided to "converge" my Motorola V500 with my iPaq 5500 - in the form of the HTC Magician.

My Pocket PC use has declined to a few core applications that I rely on all the time and they should work just fine on the slightly smaller screen. One less device to carry around will be nice.

The Universal model looks a wee bit large to carry about all the time.

[surur]

This device is smaller than my Loox 720 and SE V800 combined, and has all the same features with the added goodness of a keyboard. I'll certainly be looking to upgrade at the end of the year, and its nice to know I wont have to change networks to do that.

I just hope they have a voice dialling solution by then.

Surur

PS: I find this line (regarding HTC) most encouraging

Last month, it reported monthly sales of TWD4.2bn ($132.3m) up 90.1 per cent on the TWD2.2bn ($69.6) recorded for January 2004. ®

For large companies like Dell and HP we never really know what contribution pocketpc's make, and we often wonder if they are losing money, and whether PDA's will disappear. HTC, the maker of many many pocketpc's is certainly making a lot of money (looks like more than a billion in revenue a year, and growing). Based on that its clear that pocketpc's and the WM OS have a bright future (even if its as part of a PDA phone)

[Jonathon Watkins]

...its nice to know I wont have to change networks to do that.

I'm still hoping that O2 will offer this PPC. :mrgreen:

Based on that its clear that pocketpc's and the WM OS have a bright future (even if its as part of a PDA phone)

Agreed. It's all about semantics really, isn't it. I regard the 'Universal' as a Pocket PC with an embedded phone. Other may regard it as a phone with added Pocket PC functionality. :wink:

[Jonathon Watkins]

When did the Vodafone announcement happen? They are our corporate mobile provider so I was keen on seeing what

It's been more implicit, rather than an explicit announcement. I have updated the post with the relevant links.

[nadeaup]

I hope T-mobile offers this phone in the USA SOON!!! (soon = within 3-6 months!) Anyone have some insight into this?

[Swordsman74]

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE...

Someone release this phone in the US... This is the first device that has had any chance of making me converge pda and phone. It has to be the specs that are listed here though: 640x480, keyboard, stereo, swivel display...

If T-mobile already is going to release it overseas, they would be the most likely candidate to bring it to the US first, right? And if the overseas release is slated for late this year, that would mean a US debut would be sometime early next year?

[Jonathon Watkins]

This is the first device that has had any chance of making me converge pda and phone. It has to be the specs that are listed here though: 640x480, keyboard, stereo, swivel display...

Agreed. I always thought of myself as a two device man. The thing is, those two devices now look like a PPC with embedded phone and a Bluetooth headset. :wink: I look forward to trying out this combination. :mrgreen:

[gibson042]

When did the Vodafone announcement happen? They are our corporate mobile provider so I was keen on seeing what they would do about this model.
I'm not sure when exactly it was made, but I found out from msmobiles.com (http://msmobiles.com/) almost immediately after T-Mobile's announcement of the MDA IV. I believe the information came out at the same time as HTC's "Universal" codename.

[gibson042]

If T-mobile already is going to release it overseas, they would be the most likely candidate to bring it to the US first, right? And if the overseas release is slated for late this year, that would mean a US debut would be sometime early next year?
If this phone comes to the United States, it will almost certainly be through T-Mobile. Reason being that, if I remember correctly, Cingular/AT&amp;T relies primarily on the 900 MHz GSM band that is absent from all announced models of the HTC Universal. Although not inconceivable for them to pick it up, or even for Verizon or Sprint to do so, all three companies would have to request hardware revisions (new GSM band for Cingular/AT&amp;T, CDMA instead of GSM for Verizon or Sprint) to do so.

That being said, I am a little more pessimistic about the time frame. I doubt that any US carrier would pick up the phone before spring 2006, but more likely it would be summer or fall. I suspect that it will be offered, if only because the specs on this thing are going to have it selling like hotcakes, but wireless providers over here just move glacially when it comes to picking up new phones. Your best bet will probably be to get the phone through an importer and use it with T-Mobile.

[surur]

This is the first device that has had any chance of making me converge pda and phone. It has to be the specs that are listed here though: 640x480, keyboard, stereo, swivel display...

Agreed. I always thought of myself as a two device man. The thing is, those two devices now look like a PPC with embedded phone and a Bluetooth headset. :wink: I look forward to trying out this combination. :mrgreen:

Agreed on both counts. There is currently some very feature rich bluetooth headsets (e.g. vibrate and caller ID and ringtones and displays etc). This phone has near every feature I could wish for. It apparently also has video out, which makes me believe it uses the same chip as the dell x50v. Now I just wonder if it will have USB host and Consumer IR.

Surur

[Arne Hess]

[i]"Orange has confirmed that it will release later this year a Windows Mobile-based handset engineered for 3G networks and that the device will be produced by HTC. The announcement . . .
TheReg is pretty late this time... ;-) Orange and Microsoft announced it (http://www.ppcw.net/?itemid=2248) in Cannes on the 3GSM Congress one month ago already and Orange already previewed their 3G device there:

http://www.ppcw.net/images/news/orange_spv_3g_4_small.jpg

More photos here (http://photo.ppcw.net/index.php?gallery=./Events/3GSM%20World%20Congress/3GSM%202005&amp;startat=25) and of the T-Mobile MDA IV here (http://photo.ppcw.net/index.php?gallery=./Events/CeBIT/CeBIT%202005).

[gibson042]

This phone has near every feature I could wish for. It apparently also has video out, which makes me believe it uses the same chip as the dell x50v. Now I just wonder if it will have USB host and Consumer IR.
It could have a 2700G too?! Man oh man, this phone just gets better and better. And, if by some fluke of good fortune, it also has USB host and CIR... WOW. The latter is just darn cool, and the former could make up for the sting of all the gadgets (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=305825&amp;highlight=wired+Ethernet+cards+cameras+GPS+receivers+VGA+adapters+barcode+scanners+serial+USB+ports+radio+TV+tuners+digital+multimeters#305825) lost due to the absense of a CF slot. If it does have these features, and I sure hope it does, that places it two and a half away from the perfect (IMHO) device using current technology: Quad band GSM/GPRS with dual band UMTS
Programmable application buttons
(jog dial)I love this phone!

[manuelpl]

I so can't wait for this phone , im drooling and hanging for any info picture i can get a hold of, like if it was STARWARS or something, im such a geek.

Anyways I am still not convinced which carrier well bring it to the USA.
First Tmobile , does not support EDGE.
But Cingular Does ?

I currently have the HP6315 , while i can do lots of things with it , i've totally abandoned the BT headset feature. And teh internet is slow using GPRS. It doesn't run the SE version of WM2003 , so screen rotation, and issues with signal strength. So I welcome this new PDA

Woooo !!!

[surur]

Check this thread over at Howardsforum. The MDA4 is just mentioned in passing, but apparently a HTC representative confirmed it will be running Magneto!

Another major sticking point taken care of.

http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php?s=&amp;threadid=591267

Surur

[maximus]

Living in a backward country like Indonesia, I found myself less excited than most of you.

My 2 primary concerns are :
1. We usually get things 6 months after the rest of the world. Example : XDA mini is only 'physically' available in the market in march 2005. Sure, the advertisement is already started in january 2005.
2. Crazy price. Example : XDA IIs is lamely priced at USD1000. XDA Mini is USD800.

I have to admit, it is an ultra cool gadget. But I dont think I am going to spend USD1100+ to get it, and watch the price drops to USD500 6 month after my purchase.

[maikii]

[i]"
Well, this now means that Vodaphone (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/02/28/vodafone_htc_universal/), T-Mobile (http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000850034266/) and Orange are all going to offer this great Pocket PC with embedded phone. The more the merrier. I am really looking forward to getting hold of one and I know many of you guys are too. :-)

Well, I hope by T-Mobile he means my carrier, T-Mobile USA, which has been way behind other carriers (especially Cingular) in the smartphone field in the USA.

I fear not though. And we should know by now that the fact of a phone coming out on T-Mobile in Europe, says nothng about it coming out on T-Mobile USA. (Everyone was sure that the T-Mobile SDA was just about to come out in the USA, but it never did, so far at least.)

T-Mobile USA customers--let the company know you are unhappy with their phone selection, lack of smartphones, etc. Perhaps if they hear from many of us, they might change in that department.

[maikii]

Living in a backward country like Indonesia, I found myself less excited than most of you.

My 2 primary concerns are :
1. We usually get things 6 months after the rest of the world. Example : XDA mini is only 'physically' available in the market in march 2005. Sure, the advertisement is already started in january 2005.
2. Crazy price. Example : XDA IIs is lamely priced at USD1000. XDA Mini is USD800.

Well, I guess we in the USA are in the most "backward" country of all!

:lol:

Phones seem to always come out here later than everywhere else int he world, if at all. I've heard that many more phones are available in Asia (perhaps not Indonesia, but certainly Japan, So. Korea, China, Taiwan, etc.) than here in the USA.

I don't know if the XDA Mini is available in the US now either, by the way, at least not through any carrier. Perhaps through one of these companies that imports phones from abraod and sells them at extortionist prices!

[gibson042]

Check this thread over at Howardsforum. The MDA4 is just mentioned in passing, but apparently a HTC representative confirmed it will be running Magneto!

Another major sticking point taken care of.
And thank goodness for that. :way to go: With the OS taken care of, is there any reason why a person who could use this phone (i.e., can afford it and considers the size acceptable) wouldn't?

What's that you say? That person needs the 850 MHz band? No problem.

Interestingly, information presented along with the device here at CeBIT lists its GSM support as being quad-band 850/900/1800/1900 MHz as opposed to the previously claimed tri-band support; all for the better.
:mrgreen: