Microsofts Iphone. (htc-touch)

[Jagie]

HTC - Touch

 

The Microsoft Apple face-off comes in a multitude of flavors and the mobile phone market is just another front for the two companies to go head-to-head on. With Microsoft already an established presence in the mobile industry and with the Windows Mobile operating system, Apple has found itself in the position of a newcomer. And the Cupertino-based company has gone all out with the iPhone and has even apparently sacrificed the upcoming release of Mac OS X Leopard to the phone.

 

Apple is aiming no less than to replicate the design success of the Mac computers and the iPod digital media players with the mobile handset.The iPhone plans are modest, much in the same manner as with Microsoft's Zune and the iPod. While Zune is still on track to selling one million devices by the end of June 2007, the same date will debut the availability of the iPhone and the start of the run to 1% of the market. But while 1% of the mobile market is equivalent with a healthy slice out of a volume of 1 billion mobile devices sold per year. Apple's iPhone selling 10 million items in the first year of availability will be nothing short of a success and a rough equivalent of what the company is selling with the iPod.

 

However, Apple's main competitor in the mobile industry is not Microsoft, not even by far. Although the Redmond Company established a strong presence, Apple would have to go against household names such as Motorola and Nokia. But this does not mean that the Apple and Microsoft feud won't transition to the mobile market. As Apple will release the iPhone in the US, Microsoft together with HTC have gone for the non-traditional American market. The HTC Touch Mobile Phone will be released outside the United States, and it will feature touch screen capabilities, not multi-touch like the iPhone and Windows Mobile 6. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer stated in the past that the company has no plans to turn Zune into a phone and that it will continue to work with hardware partners for platforms for the Windows Mobile operating system.

 

News: Softpedia

 

* According to BBC programme "Click", Microsoft have been making this phone 1-2 years before the iPhone. Perhaps Apple copied them. However, when the HTC-Touch does come out, Public will be still saying that they have copied Apple, Even though they havent.

 

 

Regards

Jag

[takaharu_]

I have the HTC Touch Dual (which can be seen on the official site) and I think it's great; I love the idea of being able to use a touch screen as well as a number pad because, to me, a phone is not a phone without a number pad. It does everything I want plus more.

The only down side is, it sometimes forgets to tell me it has a text message until I open up the inbox.

[Josh`]

This phone has been out... I hate the HTC Touch, personally. lol

[Guest Travis]

Why do you hate it Josh? It is helpfull when criticising to explain why.

 

The screen looks small. Are there other colours?

[Josh`]

Was late for work lol had to be quick and to the point

 

I hate the interface. on the iPhone I can actually use my thumb to hit the numbers to call someone. On the HTC, my thumb is too big to dial any numbers. I hit more than one so then I have to use the stylus. Even then I hold the phone in my right hand and I use my left hand to reach on the right side of the phone to pull the stylus out to hit the numbers because I am left handed -- not right handed.

 

When exiting an application on the phone, I have to press the exit button more than once -- it takes forever to close them. I could never use it as a phone. Now if I had a Centro........now we're talking

[C•Dryk™]

I'm owner of a HTC Touch, and I love this mobile phone and Windows Mobile 6 pro. Before, I tested Symbian, it's good too, but not so good (imao). For me, Apple products are limited compare to Windows Mobile. I like the way to use the phone by touching screen, it's easy, well done. I use Putty mobile and ssh sessions are easy. There are numerous good task managers, folders managers, and good system tools. It exists a good Windows RDP client too (remote desktop). Morover, embeded HTC tools (like photo software, dialer, plugins, touchflo, htc_cube...) are really good and usefull. By using Windows Mobile center on Vista (or ActiveSync on XP) you can synchronize with MS Outlook, OneNote, WindowsMedia etc like others PocketPC or WindowsMedia capable devices. You should test a HTC of the Touch series (touch, touch duo, touch cruiser...) at least one time in your life Others HTC (as TyntII) are really good too, near a full PocketPC, with graphic accelerator included, and could be "touch capable" by installing something as TouchCommander or TouchFlo only.

 

P.S. (for Josh ^^) I am left handed too, screen of HTC Touch can be reversed.

Edited May 27, 2008 by C-dryk™

[Josh`]

No I mean where the stylus is located. The live phone we have in our Sprint store just has a spot for the stylus on the right side of the phone. I've had many customers buy the HTC Touch from us and was very lost as to how the phone really worked and how to navigate through menus. (It's not that they weren't stupid, it's just that it's not an easy navigational system and lots of things/features are sort of buried in the phone)

[Guest Travis]

Sounds like you just need to get a smaller thumb!

[takaharu_]

Basically, if you can use Windows, you can use a HTC phone; you use a start menu to get to a common program, the program folder or settings folder (both of which use a scroll bar), select whatever you want to do and away you go, just tapping the thing you want.

You have a choice between a large(ish) keyboard, a small keyboard, a touch keypad (a touch-screen version of a phone's keypad), a block recogniser (so you can draw each letter one by one), a transcriber (so you can write in your own handwriting), a letter recogniser (similar to block recogniser) or a touch keyboard (a bigger keyboard, where each key has one or two letters on it) to do texting, write notes, or whatever you need to type in.

 

The iPhone, on the other hand, is reportedly a PDA where they forgot to add a phone, then added the phone afterward. I haven't personally used one but as most complaints about the phone will tell you, it's apparently awkward to use it as a normal mobile phone.

 

Josh, unfortunately for you (and my dad), if you've got big fingers don't expect modern phones (particularly touch-screen ones) to be easy to use (at least without a stylus). Buttons are not getting any bigger. You'll probably see this thing before too long.

Edited May 27, 2008 by takaharu_

[Jagie]

Basically, I hate Apple, and love microsoft. So even if apples iphone are better, I still love microsofts XD