Most resellers will have to wait until April to stock HTC's latest smart phone, released today exclusively to Telstra's channel of resellers and 3G mobile data network.
But the HD2 phone will be available immediately in an "unlocked" state for use on other networks for $829 (normally $979), a Telstra spokesman said. Locking is the process of forcing a subscriber to use a carrier usually by crippling the phone's ability to use rivals' subscriber SIM cards.
It comes with Telstra content including Foxtel, Sensis search and Bigpond. But the TV content that includes sports, entertainment, children's and classics operates only over the Telstra Next G network.
A Telstra spokesman said issues with intellectual property rights owned by other members of the Foxtel consortium restricted streaming of pay TV over Wi-Fi although he said it was a problem the telco, which is a half owner in the service, was working on.
And although there was no technical problem with rival content providers such as the Australian Broadcasting Corporation providing video on demand as it does on the iPhone and through its iView client on devices such as the Playstation 3, a HTC spokesman said it was "unlikely" such services would find their way to the handset. iView has become so popular that the national public broadcaster has more than doubled its budget this year.
A key selling point of the phone is its use as a wireless Wi-Fi router, said HTC sales and marketing director, Anthony Petts. He said it can be used to share a 3G connection to the internet among laptops.
Such tethering on the competing iPhone was shunned by most carriers at the outset, Telstra claiming that Apple was to blame for the delay to include the feature that many observers believed was the fault of an arrangement between the device maker and US carrier AT&T.
User communities such as those at Whirlpool quickly sprang up to subvert attempts to block the feature.
But Petts was unable to say if the phone would be released later in the year running the upgraded Windows 7 Mobile operating system or if this would be available as an update to handset owners.
HD2 features:
- Capacitive touch screen such as that on the iPhone (earlier phones used resistive technology that were less sensitive to touch)
- 1GHz Snapdragon processor
- Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional
- 10.9cm screen
- 480 x 800 WGA resolution
- 1230mAh rechargeable Lithium-ion battery
- About 6 hours talk and up to 8 hours standby
- 5MP colour camera with auto focus and deal LED flash
- GPS and digital compass
- HSPA/WCDMA at 850/2100 MHz
- Uplink 5.8 Mbps, down-link 7.2 Mbps (quad-band GSM/GPRS/Edge)
- Micro USB connector, Bluetooth 2.1, Wi-Fi (b/g), 3.5mm audio jack, internet sharing over USB, Bluetooth or Wi-Fi
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