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British retailer Mobiles.co.uk appears to have pulled information from its site about two upcoming HTC smartphones.
Reports early on Aug. 20 said the site had provided details about the HTC Desire Z, code-named Vision, and the HTC Desire HD, code-named Ace. However, a visit to the site and searches for the devices now yield only gray silhouettes and badges to indicate that the phones will be available from mobile carrier Orange.
According to Techtree.com, Mobiles.co.uk earlier confirmed that the Desire Z will feature a 3.7-inch capacitive touch screen with a resolution of 480 by 800, as well as a QWERTY keyboard. The phone will reportedly also support WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth 2.1, quad-band GSM, and an up-to-32GB MicroSD memory card. Powering the phone will be Qualcomm’s 1GHz Snapdragon processor.
Also included will be HTC’s Sense user interface. There has been some question about the need to continue to include such interfaces, as future versions of mobile operating systems plan to incorporate many of the capabilities offered by UIs. In June, however, the head of HTC’s user experience design team told Forbes that HTC will still include Sense on handsets, though it will be a version that has been modified accordingly.
In addition to noting the HTC Desire HD details given on Mobiles.co.uk, Techtree.com reported that it has already confirmed several more. These include a 4.3-inch touch screen, Google’s Android 2.2 operating system and a Snapdragon processor. The rather-snazzy Desire HD will reportedly also come with an 8-megapixel camera with 720p high-definition video recording capabilities, Xvid support, Auto Face Tracking and SRS Surround Sound. Support for Adobe Flash 10 is also expected.
Release dates and pricing information for both devices are still unknown.
In the United States, Sprint currently offers five HTC handsets, most notably the Evo 4G; AT&T offers the Aria, Pure and Tilt 2; T-Mobile offers seven devices, from the MyTouch 3G to the Touch Pro 2; and on the Verizon network, customers can choose from seven handsets that include the Droid Eris and Droid Incredible.
HTC announced second-quarter net profits of $269 million July 30, following shipments of 5.4 million handsets. The figure represented 33 percent year-over-year growth, largely thanks to the company’s alignment with the Android OS. Since equipping its handsets with Android, HTC has quickly established itself as a major smartphone brand in the United States.