HTC aims Wildfire Android phone at youth market

HTC has added another model to its growing line-up of smartphones based on the Android platform plus its own Sense user interface overlay.

The HTC Wildfire, due to be available to European and Asian customers from the third quarter, integrates with social networks and makes the company’s HTC Sense experience accessible to a younger audience, the firm said.

With a 3.2in touch screen, the Wildfire is styled as a smaller and presumably less costly version of the firm's Desire handset, although HTC did not specify pricing.

However, the firm is touting the new device's credentials as a "social media phone", thanks to its Friend Stream app which aggregates Facebook, Twitter and Flickr access into a single tool.

"HTC Wildfire makes the HTC Sense experience available to young mobile users for the first time," said HTC vice president for EMEA, Florian Seiche.

"It brings all your communications into one place, whether through Facebook, Twitter, text messages, images or email, ensuring that you are never far away from the conversation and always close to your friends."

The Wildfire is a quad-band GSM handset and supports HSPA download speeds up to 7.2Mbit/s. It also has Bluetooth and 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, GPS, a 5-megapixel camera, and a microSD slot for Flash memory cards.

Other features include an accelerometer, compass, FM radio and optical joystick controller.