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Photo report from HTC launch event in London, EU, on October 1st 2007 October 02, 2007 [General] | By Edward J. R.  The event itself was located in one of the most exclusive locations in London: Kensigton Roof Gardens. This is a building that has on its roof several gardens - in the middle of London! Apart from gardens there are other facilities in this building, including night club and restaurant. The whole venue of Kensington Roof Gardens can be rented for private parties or events and is part of "Virgin Limited" and owned by British billionaire Richard Branson. Unfortunately it was raining this day so the after-event party (snacks, drinks) was taking place indoors and not in the roof gardens of this building. The first person, who appeared on scene was this guy from HTC, who probably has organized this event form the logistics point of view: 
... and then CEO of HTC - Peter Chou - was speaking and flashed shortly HTC Touch Dual (the main attraction of this event probably): 
After CEO came the boss of HTC Europe - Florian Seiche - who was talking about other 3 devices (to describe less attractive stuff before CEO came back to discussion of HTC Touch Dual): 
Then a guy from Microsoft UK was invited to give a speech: 
Then Peter Chou and Florian Seiche were answering questions in a FAQ session: 
After speeches and FAQ sesision a curtain to the left side of the scene has been unveiled and a table with devices - for people to touch and view - was presented. Also snacks (including some tasty meat) and drinks (including alcohol) were served. When it comes to devices obviously the main attraction of the event was HTC Touch Dual: 
... that doesn't have WiFi and GPS but it has fast processor, slide-out keypad or keyboard (depending on customer choice), 3G with HSDPA and generally is only slightly bigger than original HTC Touch: 
On photo above you can see miniUSB connector (actually miniUSB + headset socket in one) and a card slot for microSD cards. The camera still is the one with 2 megapixels without autofocus (what proves that if one needs to have everything - GPS, autofocus, etc then HTC Kaiser is the answer): 
The slide-out keyboard/keypad are availble in 2 editions, one with 2 letters on key and one as regular cellphone keypad: 
Generally the looks and feeling are the same as in case of HTC Touch but this phone is a bit thicker (due to the keyboard/keypad obviously): 
One drawback of HTC Touch was that users couldn't write texts with fingers, but had to pull out stylus. Now this problem has been resolved not just by 3rd party applications but HTC itself has designed 2 new virtual keyboards - Touch Keyboard and Touch Keypad: 
Here is Touch Keyboard (note: it is not QWERTY but 2-letters-on-key keyboard): 
Here is Touch Keypad: 
These virtual keyboards are pre-installed in HTC Touch Dual and will be available as separate download for owners of HTC Touch. Another attraction of this event was the fact that for the first time in history HTC has officially (unlike unofficial ramblings from certain other trade show) unveiled HTC Shift UMPC (Ultra Mobile PC): 
... that is powered by Windows Vista and has also cut-down version of Windows Mobile (that HTC calls "SnapVUE") that however can only run email application and calendar but no 3rd party or other Windows Mobile applications can be executed (why it is so that it is not a full Windows Mobile - we don't know and we prefer not to speculate about it). Windows Vista and SnapVUE can run at the same time or SnapVUE can run alone thus increasing (already long) battery life even more: 
When keyboard is closed HTC Shift looks like a big Windows Mobile device but it is running full Windows Vista (note: touch-pad and fingerprint sensor on the right side): 
On the right side there is a standard USB connector: 
... and on the back there is a VGA-out connector: 
Here is a close-up of SnapVUE that shows that it has a feel and look of Windows Mobile (but is not Windows Mobile at all): 
Another unveiled phone was HTC S730 that is a smarpthone without touch-screen but with 3G and an excellent slide-out QWERTY keyboard: 
Another phone unveiled this day was HTC P6500 - a phone for enterprises with bar code scanner and a fingerprint sensor (it is quite big but obviously it is designed so on purpose for enterprise applications): 
Conclusion: while this HTC event has not unveiled some incredibly revolutionary products indeed HTC has indicated that it is constantly sprucing up its products and technologies. The new extended HTC TouchFLO technology with image viewing application that can use gestures to zoom-in, zoom-out and rotate (see upcoming report about it with video demonstration) is incredibly impressive too. HTC Shift on the other hand possibly is the best UMPC ever because users can switch off Windows Vista part and instead use it just as an email machine with incredibly long battery life. All products mentioned in this event should be on the market by the end of October 2007 - what shows that HTC is not just about announcements but can also deliver!  Post your comment (free registration is required to post, but if you register you can edit your posts later) [ 4 Comments ]
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