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Following a Taiwanese news report that HTC was experiencing “glitches” with its newly introduced Windows Phone 7 devices, officials with the smartphone maker said that all is well and that devices will ship on time.
“We are shipping our (WP7) phones this week, as planned,” an HTC spokesperson told ZDNet.com. “Everything pointing to a delay is wrong.”
Still, ZDNet went on to quote to a spokesperson as adding, “There are always things that pop up, but they get fixed if there is anything wrong.”
While the spokesperson offered no additional information, ZDNet reported that problems were rumored to be related to customizations that HTC did to the phones, and which could have been fixed via updates pushed out to the devices’ carriers.
Microsoft, said the report, referred all calls to HTC.
The Oct. 17 news of the glitches caused HTC stock prices to fall to their lowest level since Sept. 3, according to Focus Taiwan, which reported, “The glitches made investors here very cautious, as they are afraid that the technical problem will affect HTC’s shipments in the fourth quarter,” quoting TLG Asset Management analyst Arch Shih.
Microsoft introduced the phones, which run its long-awaited new OS, at a New York City event Oct. 11. Included were three devices headed for the AT&T network – the LG Quantum, the Samsung Focus and the HTC Surround, each of will retail for $199 with contract – and the HTC HD7, will be exclusive to T-Mobile. Other HTC handsets – the HTC 7 Trophy, Mozart and Surround – will launch with carriers abroad.
“We focused in on the way real people really want to use their phones when they’re on the go,” Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said at the New York event. “We set out to build a phone that was thoroughly modern … modern in the hardware we use, modern in its design principles. … We hope you agree that, with all of that in mind, we’ve taken a very different tact.”
In Europe, the Windows Phone 7 handsets will go on sale Oct. 21, but fans in the United States will have to wait until Nov. 8.