HTC changing direction?

December 7, 2009 | By l3v5y

As you’ve probably noticed by now, HTC generally only produce high end devices (I can’t think of one that was deliberately low end apart from the HTC Tattoo), but that may well be about to change.

The latest set of devices to be leaked are all running on the Qualcomm MSM7227 platform (which given Snapdragon may well be a step back). MSM7227 definitely isn’t Snapdragon, as they are QSD8XXX. So, what is it then?

Well, according to Qualcomm themselves it “targets sub-$150 Smartphones with versatile, high-performance chipset supporting all leading mobile OS”. That includes WM, Android, BREW and even Symbian. Clearly then, this was never destined for high performance devices.

The main benefit of MSM7227 aside from the cost seems to be the ease of reusing tools and software for the MSM7200A chipsets that have been in almost every HTC device for the past few years.

So, are you looking forward to the day when Smartphones and “dumbphones” are indistinguishable in price, or would you prefer HTC to produce more devices like the HD2?

About Olly Levett

Tagged htc, htc photon, htc tera

hduser

600mhz shouldn't be too bad, if they include proper drivers.

maybe the $150 is referring to subsidized price?

fact of the matter is most people don't want a 1ghz processor but would rather prefer longer battery life and smaller form factor.

http://intensedebate.com/people/l3v5y l3v5y

I'm not entirely sure what its referring to, since many devices are already $150 subsidised.

When you've used a snapdragon device, you'll realise how fantastic it is! The TG01 included a utility for dynamically underclocking it, which I need to test on my HD2…
http://intensedebate.com/people/Foamy Foamy

all i can say is that my HD2 easily gets double the battery life of my kaiser with reasonably heavy use. this is with a much bigger screen and smaller battery.
hduser

by 'most people' i wasn't referring to myself

netboy

ya, why not bring back 200mzh or 400mzh cpu if you want longer battery life!
are you kids homeless or something?? you can charge your phone at home, in the car, office, hotel. what is so hard just plug the damn phone in and charge it!

http://intensedebate.com/people/l3v5y l3v5y

To be fair, it is a little inconvenient. It's by no means the end of the world, but maybe a slightly bigger battery would be better on some devices…

sjwu

This may be a sign of things to come…

Remember Microsoft’s two tier winmo strategy? android, low end phones, iphone high end.

i think this is the low end 6.5 phones, htc is withholding high end devices for the end of the year and 7

dave s

i agree

Charlie

mini-usb chargers are $2.99….I have 5 or 6 of them. All I need it 8 hours with heavy use. 1500mah is fine.
Mitch

Cheaper is better for getting phones in to other users. I have friends that walk in to the call phone store and asks what is free. They may look around and spend up to $50, maybe. If this is what it takes to introduce cheep smartphones to the masses, then the audience for the high end touch pro 2s and HD2 becomes that much bigger. But spending $200+ on a phone not fully understanding all they can do is no an easy sell for most.
http://intensedebate.com/people/Noonski Noonski

I'm not worrying that much as long as they bring me something even more Hardcore then the HD2 by next Summer.
http://intensedebate.com/people/mohsen7x8 mighty

Makes me wonder what the hell that superstar thing was and why it was there in 2009 leaks !
Certainly tegra wouldn't play really nice with winmo6.5 so I guess that has to wait and these devices except the bravo are all mid-range ones!
By the way, the bravo looks really good! at least in leaked slides. doesn't it?
http://intensedebate.com/people/pinguino1 pinguino1

.

All of this just Nonsense! I can't imagine HTC playing suicide.
Very simple. Either HTC brings the next HD2 with a WOW! or somebody else will.

GM has a Chevy and a Cadillac. (just making a point)
HTC will reach more market niches combining feature phones and top of the line smartphones.

It's a strategy. They don't mind leaking to low line of phones. (Let the competition worry about)
Wait for the leak of the next super smart phones. That one will not come out easily.

.

sjwu

true, after the tremendous leak early this year, they could be playing us now…

BUT, the HD2 was one of the worst kept secrets in the history of ever…

Dave

I just want a HTC phone that doesn't lag (like my Sprint TP2.)
Warren

Get real guys, HTC said a few months ago with the release of the Touch Pro 2 in the US that they're going for a two tier platform with low-end phones and high-end devices for those demanding the cutting edge of technology (but at a premium price). Microsoft has said something similar with their plan to have Windows Mobile 6.5 and 7.0 co-exist together in the market place. 6.5 will ultimately be designated for low-end devices and premium devices will run Window Mobile 7. This has been Microsoft and HTC plan all along and they have already told the public what their intentions are… the new device leak are clearly labeled for t-mobile and obviously not Windows Mobile 7 phones. WMPowerusers.com and other blogs are suffering for short-term memory lost — that or poor journalism skills.

PTrizzy

Precisely. HTC is a business. The point of a business is to make profits. Why only make high-ends when the bulk of your revenue comes from all the dumbphones? HTC's mobile market share is miniscule compare to the other mobile giants, so by utilizing horizontal integration (some of you should look this up), they get to reap the benefits from the low-end, middle-end, and high-end markets. What this does is create brand loyalty (given that the phone doesnt suck) and in 2-3yrs, you have a stay at home mom using a low-end HTC phone, the business husband using a high-end HTC phone, and their teenager kids using a middle-end HTC phones.

That sounds a lot better than having 3-4 different mobile companies occupying a family, doesnt it?

http://intensedebate.com/people/RezxerT RezxerT

"So, are you looking forward to the day when Smartphones and “dumbphones” are indistinguishable in price, or would you prefer HTC to produce more devices like the HD2?"

Well, considering the HD2 is a one of kind release in a series of much poorer phones (which the 2010 roadmap seems to indicate is going to continue), I'm going to go ahead and say I prefer the price thing. As of right now, cell phones (especially smartphones) seems to be released at ridiculous prices that doesn't seem to reflect anything I can see.

In every other tech industry I know, technology increases while simultaneously going down in price. With cell phones, new devices get released, and priced the same regardless of what is actually inside the phone. I think it's kind of insane to see two cell phones released at exactly the same time with the exact same price, yet the tech inside could be worlds apart.
iFloss

They're fxckinq idiots and if they do that then they're going to lose a shxt load of customers no matter how awesome TF3D is.

I want to see the Touch HD2 pro come out. I'll even wait a year but i want to see it come out. I have the TP2 and i'm in love. So lets get a Touch HD2 pro or a Touch Pro3 to run on snapdragon. I don't even carea bout the capacitive screen until WM 7 comes out to tell you the truth.