HTC ships first batch of Touch Diamond handsets

DigiTimes has it that HTC has already shipped its first batch of over 10,000 Touch Diamond mobiles to Hong Kong CSL, which has consequently sent our saliva glands into overdrive. The report continues on to say that deliveries to European / Asia-Pacific operators should get going in June, though no further details were mentioned. Meanwhile, North Americans are left to weep softly to keep from embarrassment.

[Via SlashPhone]

[Chris Anderson @ May 30th 2008 2:02PM]

man....my Sprint 6700 is about to bite the dust, and i'm up for an Upgrade....how much longer till the Raphael ships :(

[iluvhatemail @ May 30th 2008 2:28PM]

I'm in the exact same boat. The more they delay this coming to the US, the more of us WinMo users will end up defecting to the iPhone. By this fall this phone may be old news.

[Raymond @ May 31st 2008 1:44AM]

OOoh that looks really great! I love living in asia with all these great gadgets! I wonder when it'll come to my country though.

[clak @ May 30th 2008 2:02PM]

Thank God. Another phone that isn't copying the iPhone.


No sir, YOU are the caretaker. You've always been the caretaker. I ought to know: I've always been here—Delbert Grady, The Shining

[Steffen Jobbs @ May 30th 2008 3:16PM]

You're right about that Touch Diamond not being an iPhone imitator. If they were trying to copy the iPhone, that, is what they would consider a darn piss-poor copy.

[Abuzar @ May 30th 2008 3:39PM]

Yes it's a poor copy because it's a much better phone. They would have to dumb it down a lot to make it an accurate copy.

[retro77 @ May 30th 2008 4:20PM]

@ Abuzar: L O L

[Vidit Bhargava @ May 30th 2008 2:03PM]

is the US lacking in cellphone technology or what??? all the best handsets never make it here...europe/asia get them always

[Joel @ May 30th 2008 4:13PM]

The iPhone is the only headset I know of designed by an american company. But you are right, the premium phones never make their way to the US. Though in the past I think it would have been difficult for those premium phones to compete with the smart phones of lower capability; the sticker shock alone is enough to scare away the people tha tI know.

[Shinigami @ May 30th 2008 5:22PM]

WRONG!
Only Asia gets the best phones - they had VGA screens for YEARS and you can only see the first models with VGA coming this year, and all in "smart" devices. This suxx. I want a 854x480 (or something like that) screen on my phone too!!!
Europe doesn't have that kind of phones.

[STNC @ May 30th 2008 2:05PM]

I have a friend that works in product development at Sprint. He's been using the diamond lately, hopefully I'll get a few pictures of it, but he said the sprint/CDMA version is a flat back, none of the angled stuff...

[Anonymoose @ May 30th 2008 2:30PM]

flatback, eh? sir mixalot would not approve.

[Kris @ May 30th 2008 3:44PM]

STNC, I find that hard to believe. Most phones sent to carriers for testing are test models that do not have the final shell, software, ect. I highly doubt it will look that different.

[STNC @ May 30th 2008 3:50PM]

I beg to differ, just look at the vogue and the elf, cdma and gsm units, and they are different

[Adam @ May 31st 2008 9:56AM]

Remember, sprint's getting the Raphael. The Raphael comes with a slide out Querty keyboard and does not come with the diamond designed back (it's Raphael, not a Diamond)

[Phoenix @ May 31st 2008 2:15PM]

It's getting both of them. Remember?

[projekt84 @ May 30th 2008 2:07PM]

wouldn't an all touchscreen phone be useless without multitouch? how would you type on the thing effectively?

i honestly love he touch diamond, i just don't see how it's viable for typing on... unless i'm not understanding something important?

[Anonymoose @ May 30th 2008 2:14PM]

uhh, why would you need multi touch to have a keyboard on an all touch screen device? the original htc touch had an onscreen keyboard. granted, you needed to use a stylus for it, but you could download a program that created a better onscreen keyboard for you. and the iphone doesn't use multitouch capabilities for the keyboard. maybe you don't know what multitouch is?

[NightBlade @ May 30th 2008 2:14PM]

Tell me you're joking.

[Steffen Jobbs @ May 30th 2008 3:32PM]

First of all, never use the compound word "Multi-touch" to describe that screen or keyboard action except on an Apple product. They own that compound word. For Apple imposter products, use something like "multiple-finger-touch" or "many-finger-touch". Apple may just have to sue Microsoft and you for randomly using copyrighted terms reserved for the real items.

Secondly, if it's not on an Apple product, what difference does it makes what they call it instead. It probably works like crap.

[Anonymoose @ May 30th 2008 3:55PM]

uhh...wouldn't you be better served here by breaking his hands?

[chickenator @ May 30th 2008 4:28PM]

oww, winmo fanbois...

[DigitalSciGuy @ May 30th 2008 4:32PM]

There is a terrific, albeit small, on-screen keyboard that has existed in Windows Mobile since 2003 that scuttles four keys (enter, shift, space, and backspace) in favour of equivalent gestures. I find it much faster to type with gestures than having to move my fingers to a particular part of the screen to 'enter,' 'space,' or 'backspace' and find most on-screen keyboards unusable in that respect. Multi-touch would help increase typing speed but is no prerequisite for being able to use an on-screen keyboard.

[poematik14 @ May 30th 2008 2:07PM]

Whats the MSRP? I saw them being gouged on Ebay for 800 bucks, and people were actually bidding on them.

Its an awesome phone, but I just got a Curve so no new phone for me until next year :/

[ddub @ May 30th 2008 2:32PM]

Wow they're getting ripped off. I saw them for only $300 on craigslist a week ago, so I ordered 3 for my family. Hmm.. I think I was supposed to receive them a couple days ago. Oh well I can wait a little longer.

[Joel @ May 30th 2008 4:18PM]

importgsm.com has them for around 780 USD

[Engadgetluvsappl @ May 30th 2008 2:09PM]

Ugh. So much fuss over such a mediocre device. I'll bet you it won't even be that popular in the UK where HTC's phones are renamed by networks... Please wake me up once HTC release a phone that has specs firmly grounded in 2008, not 2006.

[Anonymoose @ May 30th 2008 2:15PM]

word. that whole vga screen and 3d rendering is just so out of date.

[Marty @ May 30th 2008 2:28PM]

So what phones are 'grounded in 2008'?

[twoboxen @ May 30th 2008 2:57PM]

From the sweet name "Engadgetluvsappl" I'm guessing he/she has an iPhone and will be standing in line to get a new one with features "grounded in 2008"... features like, you know, 3G, GPS, mp3 ringtones, front camera... ZOMG AWESOME APPL!

[Engadgetluvsappl @ May 30th 2008 3:21PM]

Pffft, phones have had 3D rendering since even before 2006. VGA screens? Head out of America and then jump back a few years, you'll see them pretty often.

Yahhh trick yahhhh!

[Abuzar @ May 30th 2008 3:44PM]

Ok, WHAT CURRENT SHIPPING PHONE has better features than this bundled into such an attractive package with an amazing GUI like the Diamond?

[Phoenix @ May 30th 2008 4:09PM]

HSDPA, HSUPA, VGA, hardware acceleration, the most advanced finger UI available, 528MHz processor, 192MB RAM, aGPS, an amazing browser...

Yeah. This is old tech.


If that's grounded in 2006, the iPhone must be what... 2000? 1999?

[Vidit Bhargava @ May 30th 2008 4:29PM]

i am sure apple is studying these phones before its new iphone launch...but will still have too less features to compete phones like the diamond

[DigitalSciGuy @ May 30th 2008 4:46PM]

I don't see why VGA displays are terribly outdated when the iPhone and many of its contemporaries use low resolution displays. A higher resolution on such a small display means smaller text is more legible, allowing you to fit more of say...a web page onto the screen at once. I love using my Glofiish X500+ since it has a VGA display...though I'm considering trading mine in for the Touch Diamond.

[chickenator @ May 30th 2008 4:38PM]

i love winmo fanbois.

[Bubuschoeny @ May 31st 2008 5:03PM]

Freaking Queer. I wouldn't call edge internet access 2008 more like 2001. Shut your dam mouth you little bitch.

[Totalfixation @ May 30th 2008 2:16PM]

The country with the most copy cats in the world is getting this phone first, how nice.

[Raymond @ May 30th 2008 2:51PM]

Please get it clear.

It's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, not Mainland China.

Sure HKSAR belongs to Peoples' Republic of China now, but I want to make it clear that it's two different story in HONG KONG and in Mainland China.

The Hong Kong Custom has always been VERY active in fighting IP infringement.

You may not be aware that the FIRST successful prosecute case towards BitTorrent usage by Criminal law is in HONG KONG.

I live in the U.S. now but I personally felt offended by your comments.

Not to mention Hong Kong's cellular service market is one of the most open and successful in the word with the penetration rate reached 139.8% of the population in July 2007.

I don't get 2 year contract for a crappy free phone in Hong Kong.
And no activation fees. Paying for incoming messages is unheard of.

Home use 100Mbit UP/DOWN Fiber network available for less than US$30 a month, all Four 3G networks are on HSDPA (some 7.2mbps) and with FULL COVERAGE.

Plus being a shopping paradise with no import tax and sales tax, I can see no reason why can't the Touch Diamond shows up in Hong Kong first.

The U.S. currently has one of the lowest rates of mobile phone penetrations in the industrialized world at 85%.

Apple's iPhone is of course highly successful, but Motorola is weakening all the way from the old time Industry leader position all the way to today, being overtaken by Nokia, SonyEricsson, Samsung.

[Jakob Henner @ May 30th 2008 3:03PM]

Oh dear god, what a ecture!! And really we don't care, and I don't think you care about the difference between Danish and Swedish vikings either? (hell yes there is a difference)

[Anonymoose @ May 30th 2008 3:07PM]

word. because danish and swedish vikings are so totally current and so totally stereotyped against by so totally many people.

[Shane @ May 30th 2008 3:33PM]

Uh, you can't have more than 100% of the population having cell phones, that's all there is, so your 139% statistic is crap.

[Steffen Jobbs @ May 30th 2008 3:39PM]

Yeah, that's okay for now. The elite Chinese in HK with any sense at all will be throwing those cheesy fakes away once they can legally get their hands on the fruity real deal.

[EvilEmperor @ May 30th 2008 3:42PM]

One person can own more that one cellphone.

[Steffen Jobbs @ May 30th 2008 4:07PM]

@Raymond
It's good to hear from someone knowledgeable on this forum for a change. However, some could still use a few more lessons in politeness.

And I agree that the iPhone is, of course, successful.

The difference between Danish and Swedish Vikings is that one group got pastries named after them and the other group got meatballs named after them. I'm sure they're enjoying their sleepytime in Valhalla or wherever they got sent to for getting gob-smacked in battles. (yeah, I agree, who cares about Vikings and I hate when the fat lady sings. Oh, those lady Vikings ate too bread and buttermilk)

[Jason @ May 30th 2008 2:19PM]

There is no keeping from the embarrassment that is the US cell phone market.

[SimbaDogg @ May 30th 2008 2:27PM]

as long as they start hitting asia soon...i'm ok, not gonna buy the phone, but i would like them to start ripping apps from that touch diamond rom, so i can get a few updates to my kaiser in the form of a cab or two...i would love to get the htc home, weather, music and internet on my kaiser...and i know there are a lot of chefs that could make it happen

[Phoenix @ May 30th 2008 4:06PM]

It's not gonna happen. It's needs VGA screen and hardware acceleration to do properly

I'm in the same boat :(

[SimbaDogg @ May 30th 2008 4:50PM]

trust me, i'm well aware of this. i have seen vga cabs modified to format kaiser, wizard, etc screens QVGA. the same was done not too long ago w/ a VGA release of opera 9.5 for the diamond. it was changed to support QVGA then voila

[Phoenix @ May 30th 2008 5:03PM]

Really? provide a link to this QVGA version of the Opera 9.5
Is it free?