By October 28, 2010

This weeks HTC Windows Phone 7 meet up

HTC Logo

This week saw the second of HTC’s recent meet ups. This time it was to show off their Windows Phone 7 handsets so I went along to a venue in Central London to check out what they had to offer.

Here is a brief summary of the evenings events:

The lines to get in were nothing compared to the Android event and seemed to be mainly comprised of seasoned and experienced smartphone users. The device of choice in the queue was definitely the HTC Desire with a couple of guys rocking HD2’s with hacked Android ROMS from the Desire HD.
The mood in the crowd was fairly excitable as very few people had been able to get hands on with WP7 yet. Quite a few were very impressed with my Palm Pixi as they had heard about it on the Podcast but hadn’t seen one (of the 7 people around me 5 were regular listeners – not bad! Thanks for the bargain corner tip!)

This would be my first chance to see and try the Mozart and Trophy as I’d already had a play with the HD7 at my local store where the manager is a fellow phone geek who rocks a jail broken and heavily customised iPhone 3GS.

Once I got in I was keen to see what the other 2 devices were like and also how the guys I had queued with received the devices and software.

Initial responses to both aspects were very positive if a bit limited. It struck me that it was an excellent gateway device to bring new smartphone users in, much like the iPhone. Once everyone had tried the devices out I talked to the guys who had been around me about their thoughts and the Android users all felt that it was a bit too simplistic for them and didn’t have all the customisation that they were used to.

I found one guy who was very passionate about Windows Mobile 6.5 and uses it within his business, as do I. He was positive about the multiple exchange support but less so that his regularly used apps would cease to be relevant, a concern that I also share. As the night wore on, the guys from the queue seemed to be of the opinion that the software felt a bit first generation, although very easy to use, and that in time it might become more suitable for them as the ecosystem grows and the app market becomes more established.
The lack of sim free devices also put a lot of people off, me included, as you discussed on the podcast. HTC did recognise this and hinted in the new year this may change and made a mention of £380 for a HD7! Seems a little cheap to me but we’ll see.

Everyone I met was very knowledgeable as evidenced by the very in depth discussion that I had about modified vs.stock Android kernels.

All in all a great event. I picked up a few Twitter followers including Microsoft which is nice. As a downer, the guy in front and the guy behind me in the queue both won Desires in the raffle!

Posted by: Phil

Posted in: News

About the Author:

Five year veteran of the site. BlackBerry specialist, but experienced in most operating systems. Enjoys flower arranging and cross stitch.
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