HTC Opal/Viva: New Windows Mobile Smartphone on the Horizon?

"According to smartmobilegadgets blog, HTC is working on a new Windows Mobile Professional smartphone which is expected to be released soon. The HTC Opal, which is most likely a codename only, seems to be HTC's planned low-entry follower of the HTC Touch and like the HTC Touch, also the HTC Opal is a 2.5G Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional smartphone supporting quadband GSM/GPRS/EDGE only. UMTS and HSDPA are left, most likely in favor of the price. Nevertheless. WiFi b/g as well as Bluetooth 2.0 are also part of the HTC Opal. Also the HTC Opal is expected to be powered by a TI OMAP 850 CPU at 200 MHz only."

Following the release of HTC flagship Windows Mobile phones in the Touch Diamond and Touch Pro, it looks like a low-end Touch phone is in the works.  In this case, low-end still means quadband GSM/GPRS/EDGE, Bluetooth and WiFi b/g, along with a MicroSD expansion slot.  Smartmobilegadgets blog has a PDF showing it's planned features.  HTC Source is reporting the phone will be released as the HTC Viva and credits Windows Mobile Italy (whom first broke the news about this product) in saying the Viva will first be marketed in Asia under the Dopod brand name beginning on September 15th.