The headline news is that HTC is launching a Desire C model today. The HTC Desire C. Featuring Beats Audio™ phone might come as a surprise to people who thought HTC was putting all its eggs into the “One” range.
The HTC Desire C seems to be trying to be a bit of everything for everyone. It’s officially described as “premium designed” but then “yet affordable” followed by “allows you to hear your music just as the artist intended”. Within seconds HTC also chimes in with an “also” and says the phone lets you easily manage your professional and personal lives. In short, the HTC Desire C is a premium affordable, multimedia, connected phone.
Let’s see the price retailers and operators give it. That label will be a much better guide to the intended target market than the release statements.
There are certainly some interesting aspects of the 3.5-inch HVGA phone. The Android 4.0, HTC Sense 4.0 is the first of HTC’s Dropbox bundled devices to come out after the launch of Google Drive. The phone comes with two-years worth of free space on Dropbox; 25GB of it. Is that the sort of integration that’ll help Dropbox fend of competition from Google? Or is it just a matter of weeks before Google starts to offer extra space for Android users too?
The phone which comes in black and white (but I’ve seen red screenshots too) will be available on Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile, Virgin Media, Three, O2, Tesco Mobile and available through Phones4U and The Carphone Warehouse. At the time this blog post went live (and I don’t believe Geek Native is breaking any embargos) the retailers are yet to list the device.
Of particular interest is the NFC variant option that HTC says will be available. This won’t be the first HTC NFC phone; the HTC One X has it and the HTC Incredible is said to be able to cope with China UnionPay’s NFC payment services.
NFC (Near Field Communication) will let phone users transmit data from their phone to NFC readers. These don’t have to be other phones – and payment terminals, often used in subways, use NFC. An Android phone with NFC capabilities is the sort of the feature that Google Wallet dreams of.
Are you an HTC fan? What do you think of the HTC Desire C? One for you?
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