The HTC Shift comes up in pretty much every conversation I have about UMPCs these days. No-one dares make a purchase decision until they’ve seen the HTC Shift. Its good looking, feature-packed, has the keyboard, is backed by a strong mobility company and has the potential to become the de-facto productivity UMPC. It also has the potential to be pushed right into the high capacity marketing and sales channels that HTC have for their existing products. All we need to know is availability, size, price and screen resolution.
After a few telephone calls and emails the other day I managed to get a response from a PR firm dealing with the HTC Shift. I won’t name then as 1) I’m not sure they should have given the info out to me and 2) I’m not sure if I believe them. I will pass on the info though. Here’s what I got in a return email:
Price: “around 1000 Euro.”
Availability: “end of third quarter of 2007.”
Before you get too excited though, lets put that into perspective with another snippet of info I had. My contact (a reseller) told me that they will have them at the end of the year but the final specifications and prices where unknown. My interpretation here is that the price could be 1200 Euros in real terms (add taxes and a bit of marketing licence) and availability could slip into 4th quarter (Christmas period == end of year) Translated in the usual 1:1 Euro:Dollar tech price conversion rate you end up with a $1200 HTC Shift. But will this only be an entry level device or will it be the full monty? Are we talking Ultra Mobile productivity device with HSDPA and 1024×600 screen for $1200?
Update: I’m not sure how long this has been up but Expansys are offering the HTC with HSDPA for around 1300 Euro and saying it will be available in October. There’s no screen resolution details. Expansys are usually expensive and it looks like 1200 Euro could be spot on.
The Intel Developers Forum is coming up in 6 weeks with the Mobility keynote planned for the 19th. David Perlmutter and Anand Chandrasekher will be speaking at 8am local time on Wednesday 19th so put it in your diary and hope for an HTC launch!
