HTC not bringing Touch HD to the States
By Darren Murph 
posted Oct 7th 2008 12:32PM
posted Oct 7th 2008 12:32PM
[Via WMExperts, thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Update: We've received official word from HTC that they've been really overwhelmed by the "strong" demand for the HD in the States and other markets where no launch has been planned (with that insane display, it seemed like a no-brainer to us!). Sadly, due to the engineering time required to get a North American 3G version in the pipeline, they say they're better off just waiting until the next round of products launches -- hopefully with some extra bands in the radio this time, eh?
Read - Touch HD not coming to the US
Read - Thanks for the concern
Don't feel bad. Touch HD is just a prototype of something... better. From HTC of course.
So just wait for the final device, IMO it will ship to USA some time in 2009.
No US Touch HD or Omnia?
I think Taiwan ans S Korea need some liberatin'
It coulda never beat the iPhone3G anyway.
LOW RANK ME HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAH
Was that reverse-psychology? It's not working.
Sigh....
:(
Exactly.
"Sadly, due to the engineering time required to get a North American 3G version in the pipeline, they say they're better off just waiting until the next round of products launches."
How about you get one in the "pipeline" from the get go so it's not an afterthought, mmkay thx.
Well.....thanks, HTC, for making up my mind for me. I'm now going to buy a Touch Pro instead of the HD.
Well, all this means is we wait for the Touch HD Pro (they've gotta do it)
We had better get some pretty awesome shit to make up for this...
Something with Windows Mobile 7 and Tegra....
Only then will I forgive HTC...
This is so close to my dream phone. Delete Windows Mobile, add Android, US 3G radios, & perhaps a sliding keyboard, and we're there.
Why is my dream phone always 12-24 month away from existing? WHY?!!
Well this blows, was going to replace my fail of a phone *att tilt* with this when it comes out next month. Maybe its time to get an iphone till HTC gets their sht together and learns to market their products...which is the main reason apple is successful.
Why would they, do they REALLY want to canoblize their G1 sales?
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
why would they pass up free money?!!! so many people would buy it!
Because they're planning to make something... more expensive soon after that which more people will grab? ;)
I'm sure not many can grab two super-expensive win-mo devices.
Very few would buy it if it launches alongside hi-res WM7 devices running Tegra.... or hi-end Android phones. Both of which may be planned at the time a Touch HD with US 3G would have launched. So they could potentially lose a lot of money there, and it's a sound decision.
The "sounder" decision would be including US 3G bands from the first place.
An even sounder decision would be for North American phone companies to use the same frequencies as the rest of the world so these problems don't crop up in the first place. Haven't you noticed how it's holding your entire mobile phone industry back yet?
The sounder-est idea would be to realize the United States was already using the existing bands for other things (e.g. military applications) and so there wasn't really a choice about it.
If a phone does not have the backing of one of the major carriers it is virtually impossible for that phone to be released here. We aren't used to paying the full price for phones here, the 1st gen iphone being the major exception, and the carriers will not subsidize a phone that doesn't meet their strict requirements. So if HTC didn't get buy-in from one the major US carriers from the very beginning there is no reason for them to make a US version. They would just be losing money. In some cases if a manufacturer tries to release an unlocked phone directly to the customer, in the US, their other phones can be blacklisted from the major carriers. It has happen here before.
I wouldn't blame HTC for this one I would blame the major three cell carriers here.
@jakem
No, it's HTC's fault. They could easily use quad-band chips that support all the frequencies, then they perhaps wouldn't need to go through this nonsense with every phone release... Look at the iPhone!
@jakem
Its because the US has to be different to the rest of the world.
If its not Phone standards, its TV standards, if its not TV Standards, its Money Lending Standards! ;)
However, the first two really only affect them, the last one thanks to their free and easy approach to lending to people who couldn't afford it, its screwed almost every economy in the world.
Thanks Uncle Sam.
@jakem
Its because the US has to be different to the rest of the world.
If its not Phone standards, its TV standards, if its not TV Standards, its Money Lending Standards! ;)
However, the first two really only affect them, the last one thanks to their free and easy approach to lending to people who couldn't afford it, its screwed almost every economy in the world.
Thanks Uncle Sam.
Whoops, double post. I guess my mouse was made in America too :p
this makes me sad
But does it makes you a sad Panda?
i know couple of people that are pissed about this. they wanted this phone bad!!!!!!!!!!!!
I thought Americans only liked mobile phones with antennas.
We love them as much as any other country did..... in 1996.
Did you just get off the boat?
oh wow...what year is it? you must think we're still spending thursdays nights at home watching new episodes of seinfeld and friends.
Didn't I read somewhere recently that the U.S. has a higher 3G saturation then Europe right now? That being the case, why in god's name would HTC intentionally disable the U.S. supported bands that are already built into this things chips? That's like building a car, but then putting some sort of gps enabled kill switch that prevents it from functioning in certain states. The hell kind of business plan is that?
Korean company and they use CDMA there. So since its winmo I could buy one and hack it and get it to work with Sprint.
Umm HTC is a Taiwanese company, not Korean
HTC is Taiwanese.
erm htc is a taiwanese company.
And as a phone company marketing employee, we have a saying: "people in the states take whatever we give them, so no point giving them the most costly product."
@saccrant
I freaking knew it. If that is the case, then this phone is horrible and would never be considered the best of phones. Which company might i ask :)
That's a very long saying that makes very little sense. You really are in marketing, aren't you?
Not only did you get the country wrong, but you have no idea what you're talking about in general theredmonkey
the CDMA technologies used here and in asia are completely different. they are in no way compatible with one another
The American mobile phone market is about 150 million phones with a chunk of it being CDMA for Verizon and Sprint. Smaller when you consider the people that would buy this phone.
What's the total for the rest of the world? It's a lot more than 150 million. HTC isn't screwing up here. What they do know now through and extremely cheap marketing survey (tweet), is that there is demand for their version of an all touch device. Next year they roll one out with WinMo 7 and 3g......And battery life to boot! haha
I'm using WinMo 7's interface right now. It's pretty sweet and very refined for an app running over WinMo 6.1.
all CDMA networks currently active in Asia with the exception of Japan are compatible with American CDMA as far as I know. The limitations are that CDMA in South Korea (the only one I can recall off hand) is that they use the 850 band exclusively for CDMA services whereas we use both 850 and 1900.
Or like building a car that works on the wrong side of the road.
WTF! NOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
PISSPOOR judgement on their behalf. Were they paid off by Apple :)
SCREW YOU HTC.... First xda-developers makes you look stupid by getting working 3d drivers onto the TILT (and others) when you said it couldn't be done, now you make yourselves look stupid by not bringing the HD to the U.S.
Jerks.
I second that! Fuck you HTC! Oh how I wish the guys at XDA-Devs would start making their own devices!
I truely hope xda don't commercialize. Instead of donation, they will start charging for every OS upgrade.
NOOOOOOO!!! I've neen holding out for this phone. It has to come here. It just have to. This is not even a discussion. I need to upgrade from my Mogul and this is the optimum replacement.
well then i have no qualms in ordering a diamond, thanks for making the decision easier htc lol
you got it. touch pro, here i come.
DONT DO IT. That is what they WANT you to do ;)
HTC not bringing Touch HD to the States -- EPIC FAIL
Normally i dont support the overused term as you put it. In this case i must.
Well. I'm getting one. I get every other phone I want (except the Japanese ones). It's expensive but if you want the hardware then......
Damn it !
Does anyone know if this thing is compatible with any networks here in the states? I might be willing to import.
I have been looking at our networks and I'm getting confused. Does anyone know what are the differences in speed between Verizon, T-mo and ATT? What do those differences mean?
It's a quad band gsm phone so if you buy an import it will work fine on either at&t or t-mobile. You just won't get the high speed data connection. You can still make calls, sms, mms, and get data at the slower edge speeds. I may consider this if the price comes down because I never intended to buy it as my primary phone; I would use it as a secondary internet tablet/MID and I can always pair it with my 3G phone.
Not completely surprised: the US isn't very popular right now. But, I'll remember this snub, HTC. The next time you come up with a killer phone, I'll remember what you *didn't* ship to the US, and I'll look elsewhere.
The "cooler things on the way" may very well be a T-Mobile Touch HD Pro running Android..... maybe...
http://www.phonedog.com/cell-phone-research/blog/g2-htc-touch-hd-may-be-t-mobile-s-next-android-phone.aspx
"...will be old news..." is also another way of them saying WM7 and Tegra devices would have already arrived by that time, so stay excited.
All your Touch are not belong to us...
You have no chance to survive make your iPhone.
Ha Ha, HTC knows that they are no competition for the iPhone, so they choose not to RUN!
iEye, you are one of THE most annoying posters here on engadget.
Every time I see your username, I throw up a little in my mouth.
wow, this is old news now. what took so long, engadget? this was on htc's twitter last week!
My guess? They were fervently working on surgically removing your head from your ass.
and, for the record? Commenting on posts with "this is so old!!11lube!" is old news.
Epic Fail. Sprint should have been on them to get this on the Sprint network. Guess my dicision is made for me...bye bye Sprint, hello ATT and that other i-thing.
Stupid, Stupid, Stupid, Stupid, Stupid, Stupid, Stupid, Stupid, Stupid, Stupid, Stupid, Stupid!!
It would hae been such a sweet replacement for my Tilt :-(
Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_buffalo_Buffalo_buffalo
Maybe they're waiting to implement the same UI with android and then ship it to us needy folk? Can a geek dream?
Yes TareX linked a rumour that something similar to the touch hd but running Android might be hitting T-mobile after the G1. So it may be that they want to hold out and have US buyers get that phone instead.
http://www.phonedog.com/cell-phone-research/blog/g2-htc-touch-hd-may-be-t-mobile-s-next-android-phone.aspx
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
WTF! this is the whole reason I wasn't getting and iFone. This SUX big time
I heard from a reliable source that HTC is prepping this as the G2 Android for T-Mobile anybody else heard anything similar?
All my sources told me to dump all my porkbellies. :)
But seriously, this appears to be the current buzz as seen in the links above.
WUT!? T-Schmobile?! The place I live now and the place I was raised in both have ZERO T-Mobile coverage and both are fairly sizable cities. Why ever would HTC cripple themselves by bringing anything else out on T-Mobile until they get their act together and get more/better coverage? Right now the big market leaders are AT&T and Verizon. A release on either one of those (yes, with Android and/or WM7) would work as "future products" but not another also-ran for T-Mobile.
I now have no reason to hold back on the Touch Pro. October 18th, here I come!!!
So the reason why we never get the newest and best phones in America is because the phone manufacturers think that no one here actaully wants them??? Is there actually that much less demand per person in our population than in Europe and Asia? The only way this makes sense is if the few gadget lovers here make up a niche market, whereas overseas the public at large expects and desires the newest technology.
It doesn't help that carriers lock phones and offer subsidy on some phones, it creates needless competition among apples and oranges. Which means a $200 entry level phone is sold @ $59.99 with a contract and a $600 phone is sold for $399 *cough*. You average Joe would rather shell out 60 bucks for a phone he'll just use to text and talk.
Back home in Asia, where I come from, all handsets are unlocked and unsubsidized. Which means you'll see the "real" price of a phone. Need to only text and talk? Buy the $200 sucker. Need more? Spend more. Which means you can switch handsets without worrying about termination fees. It may cost the same (subsidized phone + early termination
Eh, why did my comment get eaten up?
It doesn't help that carriers lock phones and offer subsidy on some phones, it creates needless competition among apples and oranges. Which means a $200 entry level phone is sold @ $59.99 with a contract and a $600 phone is sold for $199 *cough*. You average Joe would rather shell out 60 bucks for a phone he'll just use to text and talk.
Back home in Asia, where I come from, all handsets are unlocked and unsubsidized. Which means you'll see the "real" price of a phone. Need to only text and talk? Buy the $200 sucker. Need more? Spend more. Which means you can switch handsets without worrying about termination fees. It may cost the same (subsidized phone + early termination
It's not demand, it's the god awful American cell phone market. Having AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint all have incompatible phones (yes, V and Sprint use CDMA2000, but their respective phones cannot be activated on the other network) and the widespread popularity of 2-year phone subsidization.
I thought HTC would like money.
I don't get it. I've been holding my breath (and I skipped the Diamond) since we first heard about this. Sorry HTC - I'm not willing to wait another year for a good phone. It's iPhone time.
I know what the problem is, it's these stupid market analysts providing them with false statistics about North American buying habits. Think about it: what was the last NA handset (besided the iPhone to have a display > 3.5"? The PPC 6600, which came out about 4 years ago. Just think about it. T-Mobile Europ launched the MDA Pro with a marvelous 3.6" VGA display, NA got the mda (not pro) with a pathetic 2.8" "Q"VGA display! Asia get's the flame, we get the everything but.
I know there is probably more too it than that, but I just felt the sudden need to rant! I'm truely frustrated. Like I said previously; the Touch HD is comming here whether it likes it or not! And it will get modified to meet my needs; just like my German MDA Pro!
I reassure you, just like my XDA iiS (best phone in the world) it will come to the states, whether it likes it or not. "Ain't that right Ebay?" Ebay responds: "Damn Right"
HA HA!
Tough luck Americans....
Say it ain't so Joe!
Oh well, I shall get it from Asia in the summer and then maybe sell it in USofA for a premium! ;)
*Heart attack*
It's a marketing scheme to make North American consumers buy the HTC Touch Diamond or Touch Pro instead. Lol. After all, wasn't the Touch HD leaked to the presses early? It's obvious that everyone (or most of us) will skip the Diamond and Touch Pro to buy the Touch HD. HTC doesn't want people to lose interest in Diamond or Pro and they sure as hell don't want to lose money on it.
AKA lack of HTC foresight. Next time you plan to design the best phone to date, make sure it works in the biggest markets.
This is like when I found out unicorns weren't real...oh well at least there's still warrior princesses.
"David
@ Oct 6th 2008 10:31AM
I like this phone as well as the Omnia. I’m beginning to think they are just figments of my imagination. Sure I’ve seen them on the internet in photo galleries and video even, but I’ve also seen scantily clad warrior princesses riding unicorns in slow motion on the internet.
Until they come to the states with at&t flavored 3G, these phones are only myth."
Seriously though, No US Omnia or Touch HD? It's a conspiracy, I think scenario 1 below is most likely.
http://wmpoweruser.com/?p=1264
WTF! I was planning on buying it! so now i get to upgrade my mogul to the touch pro. woop..eee...
Fuck you, HTC. All you people saying "this makes my diamond/pro decision easier" need to go play in traffic, because the very existence of those phones is likely the primary reason why the HD isn't coming stateside. HTC has a strong, but small following. Simply not a diverse enough buyer market to successfully sell the HD AND the other phones. Do not be the least surprised if HTC sends over a "HD v2.0" once interest has fizzled with Diamonds and Pros.
I also wonder if this is a legal decision. The iPhone has dozens of U.S. patents, mostly pending. HTC could be paranoid about possible infringement given the similarity of devices.
What I do know is this is not an engineering decision. That is 100% pure Taiwanese bull shit.
not to mention the G1
Oh well. I just bought an iPhone and figured I would get this when it came out, not knowing when that would be. Now, I'll just stick with the iPhone until this comes to the US in some form. Hopefully they'll release a version with a keyboard or at least have a clip-on keyboard.
@ TRLK: Screw you!!
If they would give us what we want, why the heck would we loose interest?
If they where anticipating that, why not release the Touch HD, then the Pro, then the Diamond, that way people with smaller budgets would wait for scaled down versions, opposed to people with higher budget praying for beefier versions?
Damn you HTC
HTC needs to get their act together. According to NPD smartphone sales in North America have gone from 9% of total sales to 19% in one year. HTC doesn't even make the top 5 on the list of smartphone sales with RIM, Apple, and Samsung beating them out. Obviously, whoever was in their decision making process not to have a North American ready Touch HD handset before Christmas is an idiot and should be fired. HTC wants to be one of the top handset manufacturers in the world this is definitely not the way to do it. They are losing out on a pretty large smart phone market that will only continue to grow with more consumers wanting higher end phones (a large part I would say thanks to the iPhone) everyday.
To the carriers:
You guys are also idiots especially Sprint who doesn't have the iPhone or the Blackberry Storm coming out to bolster sales and get new customers on to their network and to stop bleeding. At least one carrier should have grabbed this phone early on and had it prepped and ready to be released for Christmas time. Stupid decision making all around on everyone's part.
What I like to see is the sales data in the Europe and Asian area because that's their main focus. Those folks over there have been using PDA phones for years whereas US is less willing to adopt or starting to adopt.
Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo :*********((((((((((((((
lol =/
if u guys think this has nothing to do with at&t fanboyism of the iphone ur sadly mistaken.
how is it cdma carriers are launching the diamond and touch pro before the gsm version?
AT&T.
LTE will save us all from this type of crap
Maybe we still get it in Canada!!!!
Well that's very disappointing... Well at least that kinda narrowed my choice to just BlackBerry Storm/Thunder and Xperia X1...