HTC 'Universal' 3G, Wi-Fi phone to ship 'late Q3'
By Tony Smith
The Register
Published Tuesday 14th June 2005 10:22 GMT
HTC Universal - aka MDA IV, VPA IVHTC's eagerly anticipated
clamshell 3G smart phone, 'Universal', will go into volume
production by the end of September, the company's CEO said
yesterday.
That narrows the device's launch down somewhat from the "sometime
in the second half of the year" timeframe HTC had previously
given.
It also ties in with guidance given by T-Mobile, which announced in
February it would offer Universal as the MDA IV. Then, the network
said the device would ship in the summer. By March it had delayed
the handset to the autumn.
Both Vodafone and Orange have also indicated they plan to sell
Universal under their own brands later this year. HTC itself didn't
acknowledge Universal until Microsoft launched Windows Mobile 5,
aka 'Magneto', last month.
HTC CEO H T Cho said the company may ship a second 3G handset later
this year, but in any case will next year increase the number of 3G
devices it offers. He also said the company will have shipped some
4.9m handsets in 2005, up from 3.7m last year.