A Real iPhone Challenger - Barron's

Barron's says Taiwanese company High Tech Computer's 3G Touch Diamond is "at least as good as the iPhone."

Features and advantages include:

• An iPhone-like touchscreen.
• A Qualcomm (QCOM) chipset that many say is superior the iPhone's Infineon (IFX) product.
• A replaceable battery.
• Video features the iPhone lacks.
• A 3D interface.
• A jump start; it started shipping in May.

Analysts say a $199/8Gb iPhone (AAPL) will undercut HTC's margins and could be a major problem. Others think the iPhone's discount is a mirage; once you factor in the added premium for iPhone carriers' two-year service plans, buyers may be spending more over time. (Ed: this may be true, but what percentage of buyers exhibit this level of forethought?).

HTC also has two strong-armed supporters: 78% of all Microsoft (MSFT) Windows Mobile phones are made by HTC; and it plans to ship an Android (GOOG)-enabled phone before year-end.

======================================================

Andrew Horowitz thinks Microsoft's upshot from its HTC partnership is great.

Here's the rub: HTC may indeed have beat Apple to 3G by a couple months, but Apple won the touchscreen phone race hands down. With a 3G iPhone imminent, how impatient must Touch Diamond buyers be to not wait things out and see if HTC's mysterious "certain video niceties that the iPhone doesn't have" continue to outshine iPhone's killer software and elegant user experience.

Comments

[Surur]

We have now seen the iPhone 3G, and its pretty boring, with no UI enhancements over the iPhone of old. If they tried to sell this one at the old price sales would have continued to lag. Apple was forced to lower prices - this indicates iPhone features no longer command a premium.

The HTC Touch Diamond however brings something brand new to the already burgeoning Windows Mobile market (20 million sales, 90% YoY growth) Its graphics 3D UI looks much better than even the iphone, its browser is better and more standards compliant, and it already has the library of must-have software and business manageability features that the iPhone is still aspiring to.

In short, HTC already sells more phones that Apple, and the Diamond is a very worthy contender that will limit Apple's supposed 45 million iPhone upside to much less than half that.

[Timmy]

@Surur: Yeah right.

[maeve3333]

Are you short Apple or long HTC ?Apple is about the platform . But you already know that .

[Icer Mize]

While I whole heartily agree with Surur's point regarding the superior features of the HTC Touch Diamond, it must be recognized that the iPhone is sold by Apple and that has in the past and will continue to attract the attention of those who do not bother to look further than the word "Apple".
Other than those with a pure interest in new technologies and an appreciation for the flexible characteristics of the HTC phone will realize its superiority. Interestingly to me, and perhaps I'm a party of one, the HTC line is to the iPhone what the Macintosh is to the PC. A true reversal of roles on a corporate level.
My HTC Tilt which like the iPhone is part of the AT&T lineup, has brought more oohs and ahhs than any iPhone once the viewer realizes its capabilities.
Now that the Touch Diamond is selling in the UK, I hope we will start to see a change in the 'must have iPhone' attitude.

[bobaka]

'the platform'... ooooooh wow

[FTC]

This article is very short sighted. HTC is horrible at putting out updates for there Windows Mobile Phones. Folks loyal to HTC that spent big money in getting the Cruise or Touch are still waiting for the Windows update to 6.1 or the video drivers.

I have seen the Diamond reviews and they arent good. Folks actually need to use these products before making these outlandish statments about chipsets. The infineon chipset is just being developed, who do you know the Qualcomm chipset is better? You guys are getting desperate.

[jrobert]

I find it interesting that most people totally are missing the exciting points about the iphone 2.0 release. It's not about the gps or 3g... or individual features that this article pits it against. The 2.0 software update, the application store, and 200,000+ developers working on iphone software is really what it is about and why it is exciting.

As long as phone vendors, such as HTC, keep releasing phones which are difficult build applications upon, they will be at risk.

Apple is building a phone targeted at developers. Consumers almost always follow the developers over time since that is where the apps are happening. I can tell you, being a developer myself, that developing software on a unix-based phone platform is pretty compelling.

[Surur]

As long as phone vendors, such as HTC, keep releasing phones which are difficult build applications upon, they will be at risk.
----------------------...
Thats pretty ironic, considering all the restrictions on the iPhone. Adobe do not know if they can do flash, styletap do not know if they can do a PalmOS emulator, Slingplayer do not know if they can sling over 3G, Skype know they are completely banned, Mozilla says they wont go near the iphone with a ten-foot pole etc etc.

To read about real developers and the problems they have on the iPhone, read here.

Pocket Informant on iPhone to be poorer than on WM
wmpoweruser.com/?p=183

[Toni]

Can it run the iPhone apps ? No ? Too bad. Case closed.

[Lonnie Devereaux]

What a bunch of nonsense. I'm sticking with my Iridium phone. Still the best, and it's backed by Motorola, the leading cell phone maker.

Lonnie D.

[digivision]

hahahahaha

very hilarious....HTC vs iPhone like Mac vs Windows
i pissed in my pants

as cool as it might look the HTC is just a phone and even if on paper
it can claim more features , have you people used one ??? LOL

[RK]

HTC is great at churning out large variety of phones. Based on my direct observation of the HTC phones around me in the office, the fit and finish of the hardware with the software (Win mobile) are not great. Probably due to Win mobile as much as the hardware. It is uncommon for me to see repeat HTC buyer. It is just my observation.

[mikefarr]

Take a look at the u-Tube comparisons between the HTC Touch and the iPhone and decide for yourself. For example, compare visual voicemail to having to wade through each message listening to "to reply press 5, to store press ...". VVM allows you to see all your messages at once and decide which to listen to and which to not bother with while for the other, well, telcom execs have admitted (Pogue NYTimes) that the slow, sleepy voice and requirement that the user listen to each message in series is there to waste minutes and cost the user more. Who do you want designing for you?

[TanToday]

Actually this is a good thing, really.

The more the "hounds" are chasing Apple, the more the boyz in Cupertino have to ACCELERATE things.

If they lose a few sales to the "hounds' GREAT, make Jobs and Ives SWEAT a little I say!

{ disclosure: long 2600 shrs AAPL }

[jrobert]

Surur, every single thing you mentioned is not true. Not sure if you actually believe that or you are just trying to spread fud. Adobe has already announced flash and has it working, styletap has a palm emulator ready to go (but who cares), Slingplayer already announced their product. skype has also. As far a mozilla, Firefox is already working on the iphone. I used to work on mozilla.

[michmich2]

HTC case makes it very compelling to buy the iphone 2.
I have seen it before, It is all about the hype, quality, application, itunes. Every single person in the world will get the iphone 2. They would not have sold every single iphone 1. Dig it once and for all. We are talking 70 countries vs 6 countries on July 11.

[Shorting Should be Banned]

The endless debate over iphone 3G and every other iphone wannabe has become tiresome.
Bottom line: the iphone has evolved into a Pocket Mac, so people should come to terms with this insight.

[Zach Bass]

Everyone is missing one critical point. Comparing features with the iPhone, and whether this OS has this or that OS has that, is a fools gambit. The iPhone cannot be compared to any other smart phone for one reason, and it has nothing to do with features. The reason is the ecosystem that Apple has built around the iPhone, iPod and iPod Touch. It's an industry unto itself. And there is no other smart phone or device that can come close to matching it now or into the foreseeable future.

Once Apple has world-wide distribution under its belt, the ecosphere will grow to unimaginable proportions. More and more developers will be coming on line, new products and businesses will emerge to serve the iPhone. And a new mobile platform, a transformative, disruptive paradigm in mobile computing will be born. And nothing will come close to matching it.

[BS Detector]

"...and it's backed by Motorola, the leading cell phone maker."

BWAAA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!

[F. J. Taylor]

HO-hum... yet another "iPhone killer" - yeah, right! Like Zune and the rest killed iPod?

HTC? Never heard of it till now. Never even SAW one. (I've seen hundreds of iPhones, however.) AND it runs Windows??? If it doesn't run Apple OS, I am not interested. I am a former DOS / Windows user and systems administrator who migrated to Apple about 10 years ago and have never looked back - so I want as little to do with MS dreck as possible.

The only close competitor iPhone had was Blackberry - and with the new generation, that is going to be sucking eggs soon.

I have no idea where these gentlemen are getting their outlandish ideas - but I can make a guess... Redmond.

[icanpress]

What HTC lacks, which cannot possibly under-estimated with innovative technology, is the cool factor.
I live in Sydney, Australia, where the latest Mac store just opened downtown, to lines 1/2 mile long. Pre-orders for impending iPhone (first ever release here July 11) are already surpassing expectations (I have insider info at Optus-one of two carriers). In one of the most hotly contested mobile markets in the world, these things will fly out the door, whilst HTC and all other wannabees will languish in Apple's dust.
I'm long AAPL, and will laugh even more after this consolidation finishes and we see it hit $250 by year end.

[Surur]

@JRoberts
Surur, every single thing you mentioned is not true

I'm not going paste a bunch of links, but while its technically easy to develop software for the iPhone, getting it published is another thing. The flash thing is a perfect example. All the other software suffers the same issue. Steve Jobs says No bandwidth hogs, no real time navigation, no multi-tasking, no VOIP over 3G, no interpreters etc etc.

How about doing some research before criticizing.

@Zach
With most media not coming from Apple, the market outside of the itunes lock-in is still wide open. These devices support wide range of codecs and drag and drop, meaning its compatible with people's increasing DRM free library, and support standards like A2DP that free people from the iPod dock lock-in.

@F.J Taylor
Just because you dont know the market does not negate the fact that HTC already outsells the iPhone, and will again in the next 12 months. HTC has huge carrier support, and all the carriers who did not get the iPhone will be knocking on their door.

[win]

Surur,
You haven't answered the serious factual inaccuracy charges Roberts made. If it's true that ADOBE, Mozilla, Slingplayer and Skpe support (or will soon support) the I Phone, then you have posted a serious bunch of falsities. And your refusal to even address your earlier claims and the charges against you casts suspicion upon your motives.

-Nitin

[wallawallabingbang]

Why, why it's the next Zune!

Good luck Barrons.

Where's Toni?

[wallawallabingbang]

Come to think of it, Barrons has been bashing Apple for over a year now.

This gambit is no surprise.

[Surur]

I did not know people were interested. I did not want to litter the site with links, but if you insist:

Mobile Firefox not for iPhone, Android
wmpoweruser.com/?p=139

In the words of Tristan Nitot, President of Mozilla Europe:

“For the iPhone, Apple’s license can not install software to have an interpreted language. But Firefox includes JavaScript, which makes it legally impossible to carry on the iPhone….For Android, Webkit is integrated into the OS, and only Java applications can run. And Firefox is not written in Java. So that’s why [Fennec will not run on Android]. However, in both cases, things may change in future, but it does not depend on Mozilla.”



iPhone SDK Rules Block Skype, Firefox, Java ...
apple.slashdot.org/art...

"Apple's iPhone software development kit is already drawing complaints due to the strict terms of service. Voice over IP apps like Skype that attempt to use the cellular data connection will be blocked. Competing web browsers Firefox and Opera are forbidden. Even Sun is now backpedaling on its recent announcement of a java port, noting that there are some legal issues. Critics are already comparing Apple's methods to Comcast's anti-net neutrality filtering, and Microsoft's Netscape-killing antitrust tactics. Could Apple face government regulators?"



Adobe bites its tongue after iPhone Flash jab
news.cnet.com/8301-107...

As my colleague Tom Krazit reported Tuesday afternoon, Jobs used the Apple shareholders' meeting to publicly dismiss the the full-blown PC Flash version as "too slow to be useful" on the iPhone. He then went on to describe the mobile version--Flash Lite--as "not capable of being used with the Web."




Now all of these apps may come to a jailbroken iPhone, but that is assumed to be a small minority of the market, but until Jobs loosens up his iron grip the iPhone will always be a worse platform to develop for.

[texbru]

I had 3 different HTC phones and they are prehistoric compared to iPhone. I have a 8Gb EDGE and it works great and I believe its the best phone ever.... :)

[dig]

clearly anyone who thinks the HTC is in the same league as iphone has never actually used one. no comparison.

[vassar]

Windows Mobile?

Move along....nothing interesting here...

[Jon T]

An iPhone challenger that uses Microsoft Mobile??

DON'T MAKE ME LAUGH, IT HURTS!

[User 117413]

Gosh.... Apple have the most stupid fanboys I have ever seen.

[vitaminc]

Long Apple short RIMM, NOK and HTC because iPhone will dominate the smart phone world! Everybody and their grandma will be using an iPhone!

So how many of you Apple fanboys are posting here using iPhone while lining up for July 11th release?

[Toni]

Can it run the iPhone apps ? No ? Too bad. Case closed.

[Surur]

@ Tony
Can it run the iPhone apps ? No ? Too bad. Case closed.
----------------------...

Thats a joke. It seems the iPhone is in need of WM apps, not the other way around, and that the presence of a full web browser with Ajax support, Youtube integration and a gesture-based interface and accelerometer rotation did not remain iPhone exclusive for very long. In fact with many cellphones getting visual voicemail it seems there is not much left that defines the iPhone.

Maybe you should stop answering your own questions.

[SmartenUp]

iPhone is a pocket Mac. Mac sales year over year are up 67%. Apple has a 82% market share of all computers priced over $1000.

Vista users reverting to XP are an astounding 62%.

Place your bets.

[bill d]

Yeah but none of em will run DOS or CPM

[Surprised]

I guess both sides (iPhone & WM) thinks they are right. It's nothing but their opinions. Normally it depends on what kind of use you have of your phone and how you are used to with your system/gadget.

Don't people think...they do nothing but blah..bhal..by writing their opinons (sure I do know..mine is one of those BLAHS!!)? I guess what people need to 'show' only benefits of features of products/systmes. It keeps blog more INTERESTING.

Thanks to all for their inputs. Sure, it helps/ed to know WORTHINESS of products.

[BlueDome]

Not one person has mentioned that Iphone is AT&T only. Unless AT&T is going to wipe Verizon et. al. off the map somehow, there is a huge market that can't even use an Iphone. What are they going to buy?

Enough I think that HTC would do well if it has the best iphone-like phone.

If AT&T and/or Verizon start offering internet
on phones for free or close to free, possibly ad supported, the market for touch screen phones is going to EXPLODE!

[brewer]

Do you also believe in the Easter Bunny? I would seem so. Lots of hype here, absolutely no substance.

Windows mobile is dead, and it's been on the market for eons now. No one is the slightest bit intersted (except a few posters here, apparently).

[brewer]

Oh, here's 'One more thing'. A 'more standards compliant' browser than Safari simply doesn't exist. You must be thinking of I.E.--all other browsers are more standards compliant! And, how did MS ever manage to separate I.E. from Windoze mobile anyhow? :-) I thought they said that was impossible? :-)

[Surur]

Brewster - Opera Mobile 9.5 is more standard compliant than Safari Mobile, and does better on both the Acid II and Acid III tests.

Regarding WM being dead, funny how the HTC Touch outsold the iPhone in Europe, isn't it.