Is HTC's "major announcement" a multi-touch device?

The plot is starting to thicken ahead of HTC's press conference on the fifth of June -- and as we suggested before, it appears that the company does indeed have its sights set on stealing some of Apple's thunder. As far as consumer electronics releases go, the crown for the month of June had pretty much been handed to the iPhone; yeah, pretty much any Apple release is considered something of a landmark event, but one of the iPhone's big draws is its support for multi-touch. So what if HTC were to announce its own multi-touch device -- based on the lovely Elf -- just days before the iPhone's release? A little deflating for Apple, yeah? Smartphone Thoughts is reporting that HTC plans to introduce said device at its June 5th event with the intention of releasing it quickly on a global scale. Microsoft was showing off its "Shift" touch-based interface not long ago; while we don't know that the rumored HTC device uses it, this could all work out very nicely indeed considering the cozy relationship Microsoft and HTC enjoy.

[Rick Lyon @ May 30th 2007 5:50PM]

Yea, I have never heard of them. Must be more international? I don't subscribe to smart phones but I know the popular brands from various adverts.

[Tyk @ May 30th 2007 4:33PM]

"yeah, pretty much any Apple release is considered something of a landmark event"

... spoken like a true Apple Fanboy..

[Mark @ May 30th 2007 4:35PM]

I'm usually quick to point out fanboyism but considering the tone of this article I have to say it seems like if anything it's going in the other direction.

[xxdesmus @ May 30th 2007 5:57PM]

No kidding. Every steaming piece of Apple s**t is the "must have" product for the fanboys...who woulda thunk?

[gibber9583 @ May 30th 2007 4:39PM]

Tyk, prepare to have your comment voted down ruthlessly

[jere @ May 30th 2007 6:38PM]

You know, I don't see all that many apple fanboys commenting on engadget. The highest rated comments are always the ones saying how a device is better than an apple one.

[Anthony @ May 30th 2007 4:42PM]

I don't think that for the general citizenry (you know, the 298 million or so folks in the US that *don't* read Engadget) will care too much about any HTC announcement- multi-touch, Microsoft (1 million Zunes! *actual sales figures may vary*) or otherwise.

Since the iPhone is probably not going to be on the shores of any other nations in June I say US, but the same would likely hold true in most countries.

[natef @ May 30th 2007 4:43PM]

I would really like to see a WinMo 6 Multitouch phone. Best of both words (UI and open, proven, platform).

My ideal phone would be multi-touch, but still have a slide-out QWERTY for typing messages. I think with such a small keyboard (physical, or touch-screen) haptic feedback is essential.

[andy @ May 30th 2007 4:49PM]

@natef

You mean like the 8525?

[natef @ May 30th 2007 4:53PM]

@andy,

Yes, similar to the 8525 except Windows Mobile 6 instead of 5 and also Multitouch (not sure if the 8525 is multitouch or single touch, makes a big difference in UI).

[ZSX @ May 30th 2007 4:44PM]

What intrigues me about the Elf is that it looks like it has a capacitative touch screen a la the LG Chocolate, and not like most current Pocket PCs. None of the reviews on line (as yet) mention the interface...

[andy @ May 31st 2007 11:43AM]

@natef

ah, then the 8525 is "single touch" and the free WM6 update is supposed to roll out this month maybe? It's announced, but I forget the time frame.

[rektide @ May 30th 2007 4:55PM]

anyone remember balmer going red in the face repeating "DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS"? for the life of me i cannot fathom MS exposing its programmer base to multi-touch devices. apple can do it because apple is the primary developers for apple systems. i cannot fathom how ms would graft multi-touch onto their current System.Windows.Forms for mobile.

[Darnell @ May 30th 2007 4:56PM]

I don't see how you can make a multi-touch WM6... Was the software designed to even have those capabilities? If so--I'd think that this would have been one of the major selling points when they where touting this update. Anyway--it's not the purtiest thing on the block. I'd like to know what's up with the Shift.

[natef @ May 30th 2007 5:08PM]

@Darnell,

I dont think it supports multi-touch out of the box, but it would simply require the hardware to do it and appropriate drivers. Windows Mobile 6 is really just a handheld computer, and is very extensible.

As for how ugly it is, again that is just the out-of-the-box shell. A vendor could replace it, or build on top of it something that looks much nicer. In fact, I've seen a demo of the EXACT iPhone interface run as an application on WinMo 5 (though i believe it was single touch only).

[Mike @ May 30th 2007 4:58PM]

they're going to announce the Kaiser. they've stated for months that this would be released in June. stop inventing news.

[craig @ May 30th 2007 5:09PM]

"...but one of the iPhone's big draws is its support for multi-touch..."

Sure, for those who's only goal is resizing background photos. Otherwise, the iPhone's "two-touch" interface does nothing new. Multitouch is Apple hype, not innovation. When true multitouch is implemented (i.e. more than two touches) on a reasonable-sized screen then maybe it will be useful.

The iPhone's big draw is it's from Apple, it's pretty, and it has an iPod connector. Otherwise it's just another closed-platform phone without 3G data or a useful keyboard. Multitouch is irrelevent.

[Rick Lyon @ May 30th 2007 5:16PM]

Tyk- mac hater, he's saying that whenever Apple releases something,t hey send out press releases, invite all the media and get mega coverage. Thus, it's a 'landmark event'.

WHo the hell is HTC? Never heard of them. So, I don't see what thunder they will steal other than some media coverage days BEFORE Apple releases the iphone? Big deal.

[WWebb @ May 30th 2007 5:37PM]

"Who the hell is HTC?"

Uh, only the biggest smartphone manufacturer in the world. Unlike Apple, which is late to the game and playing catch-up.

[Ike @ May 30th 2007 5:47PM]

Who the hell is HTC you say ??
The leading manufacter/provider of PocketPC's and Smartphone, (IPaqs(not the newer ones thought) and countless other PocjetPCs and smartphones = HTC) T-mobile Dash etc...Dopod,etc..
http://stocks.us.reuters.com/stocks/overview.asp?symbol=2498.TW
www.htc.com

[Rick Lyon @ May 30th 2007 5:44PM]

They sell under the HTC brand name? Or do their phones get re-branded? Not that I know anything about smart phones and I also fail to see how their sheer size have any relationship to Apple's iPhone? Apple was late to the MP3 player market also, so where's the beef?

[Anthony @ May 30th 2007 5:52PM]

HTC is certainly known - The HTC Excalibur is the T-Mobile Dash. Most Smartphones (besides Samsung & Moto) are HTC made.

They're just not a household name (unless you live in Dorkville or Phoneopolis - both quite lovely places, I might add).

[Rick Lyon @ May 30th 2007 7:18PM]

Ah wow, then they are huge if they make all those smart phones. They should always do that (they make phones for..) type inserts when they are obviously needed.

[Tracy in Cary @ May 31st 2007 6:01PM]

HTC not a household name? Yeah that's pretty true. I have a friend who is fairly technology savvy and he's loaded up with his gadgets. However when I said his Cingular 8125 was made by HTC he was fairly adamant that it might be made by audiovox, not by some company he's never heard of.

Even if HTC announced some superphone that was 2 generations ahead of anything else, it wouldn't affect the iPhone sales in the short term. The phone buying public just doesn't know them.

[JSM @ May 30th 2007 6:21PM]

Jesus Christ already, if HTC wants to make a major announcement just announce that you're shipping the Omni, and if it has multi-touch, all the better. An 800-480 screen, rotating screen, great horsepower, and access to all the existing applications - it already beats the iphone, and did a year ago when it was announced. If HTC is crushed by apple they will have no one to blame but themselves. Their rank inability to get product to market (beyond barely perceptible updates like the universal - to whatever that code name was. (ie 8700 to 8800.) Nothing pisses me off more than good engineers working for bad businessmen.

[jsanders4484 @ May 30th 2007 6:52PM]

Honestly I'd like to see HTC release a nice multitouch device that actually gets sold in the US. I was kind of bummed that the HTC Apache didn't get a wm6 upgrade, but oh well. As for the iphone? Heh..hehe...yeah what's the point? It's a cellphone and an ipod in one. My HTC Apache has a 4gb minisd chip, can play movies (divx, ripped dvds, etc), songs (any file type!), video games (doom, quake III, etc...not like any apple product can play a variety of games), take pictures and modify them, and has wifi (and evdo which is quite nice). Why settle for something that's less than what I already have?

[Patrick @ May 30th 2007 7:17PM]

Hey jsanders, HTC made some of the Treo models for Palm as well.

They're everywhere! ;)

[Ike @ May 30th 2007 7:54PM]

Yup the Treo 750 aka HTC Cheetah
http://wiki.xda-developers.com/index.php?pagename=HTC_Cheetah
They realy are everywhere lol

[jsanders4484 @ May 30th 2007 7:08PM]

HTC's pretty much the leader in smartphones/pda's. Palm has some interesting devices, but to be honest I wouldn't trade my Apache (Sprint PPC6700) for one. I just wish they would make more phones targeting CDMA carriers like they do for GSM.

Oh yeah...forgot to mention I've already skinned my UI to look just like the iphone. Purely for kicks and giggles though. Big thanks to apple putting up lifesize pictures of the iphone so I could borrow icons :-P

[t-bone @ May 30th 2007 10:58PM]

I had never heard of HTC until this year when I got a PDA and wandered into some smartphone forums looking for cool skins.

[James @ May 31st 2007 6:58AM]

"but one of the iPhone's big draws is its support for multi-touch"

Shame no-one has ever fully explained why.