When I saw the above device, the HTC Smart, I did a double-take.
BREW?
I’d heard the rumblings of HTC’s latest foray into a new market segment (“the budget smartphone’) with Brew, but I’d never thought it would look as good as it does.
So. Meet the HTC Smart. This is the first in a new category of (quoting from today’s release) ‘easy-to-use, connected smartphones that are accessible by people all over the world.’
Accessible can be read in two ways: User interface (it looks pretty nice) and Price. There’s no word on actual cost but HTC are using the word ‘affordable’ often to describe the Smart. And that’s quite exciting. I’m not a massive fan of the Brew platform myself, particularly given most of the devices I’ve seen using it have had pretty shocking interfaces. But I am a big fan of bringing mobile to the masses. To do that you need devices to be affordable.
And easy. I haven’t managed to play with one yet but I’m hopeful that the HTC Sense user-interface (which is now setting HTC apart nicely from other manufacturers) will be implemented nicely in this device. With Sense, of course, you’ve got all the social networking goodness that will hopefully be right up the alley of the target audience.
The Smart has 256MB of RAM and ROM, a decent screen (2.8” touch-sensitive), HSDPA support and a 3.0 megapixel camera. In fact, here’s the full spec list:
I could imagine mobile operators in the right markets shifting quite a lot of these.
Okay, I'm confused… Just how low price is this phone going to be. Here in the States, the Droid Eris is $99 with a contract (free if you also purchase a Droid). The iPhone 8 GB is $99 (again with contract). T-Mobile and Sprint also have Android phones in the same price range.
The only way that this makes sense to me is if it runs $75 to $150 without a subsidy and without a contract.
Any thoughts?
My first action was to contact HTC PR and ask what the rough price was. They can't (or wouldn't) comment on that yet. Any more than $150 and I think it won't be appropriate to call it budget. But then it's not got any wifi, it's using components that I imagine are preeeety cheap, the onboard memory is 256mb — it's all run-of-the-mill in terms of features so perhaps they can knock them out for around that level, without subsidy.
what? no wi fi? why?
where/how do I get one?
HI,
I am keen to go for this phone, is it available in india, and what is the cost of this.
please adivse.