There is Another Hero in the Smarthone Market: Yawn or Maybe Not?
According to a recent report by Juniper Research, the number of smartphones shipped with open source operating systems will increase from 106 million this year to 223 million by 2014. It seems like companies are in a hurry to make the prediction happen sooner than later as they keep bombarding us with different versions of Android phones every week. Android of course is the mobile open source operating system that runs on Linux initially developed by Google and has become the platform of choice for most smartphones du jour. Open source phones have also gained momentum due to the fact that you can get your hands on to the complete source code of the underlying software allowing all and sundry to add and create whatever applications they choose to for their gadgets. T-Mobile‘s My Touch gets a look-alike this October as Sprint débuts its first Google Android phone HTC Hero. The striking similarities include a large touch screen, physical controls, and a trackball. In addition, the 3.2-inch capacitive touch screen is said to support pinch-to-zoom capability.
The Hero is not a total clone and is not without its share of “Why should I get it?”s. It is the first U.S. device to have Sense, which offers seven home screens and a broad degree of customization. The phone also possesses HTC Footprints that lets users create digital postcards with photos, an audio clip and GPS coordinates. Other impressive firsts are a 3.5-millimeter headset jack and Microsoft Outlook integration with e-mail, contacts and calendar while MyTouch has e-mail only. Not to worry, the HTC device also comes with the usual bells and whistles that we have come to expect from our over delivering phones. It has a 5-megapixel camera with video recoding, Bluetooth with a stereo profile, an accelerometer, visual voice mail, Sprint TV, a microSD card slot, NFL Mobile Live and Nascar Sprint Cup Mobile, a speakerphone, personal organizer options, messaging and e-mail, a music player, Wi-Fi, and integrated GPS. The Hero will provide access to all applications in the Android developer market and offers built-in Google mobile services such as Google Search, Google Maps, Gmail, and YouTube.
Hero will be on sale starting October 11. You can preregister right now at Sprint.com. It would cost you $179 with a $100 mail-in rebate and a two-year Simply Everything Plan. The plan starts at $69.99 for 450 anytime minutes plus unlimited nights and weekends, data, messaging and e-mail.
Shop through a variety of cell phones at Smarter.com.
