HTC Touch Dual: iClone or Genius?

By Tim Conneally | Published October 2, 2007, 12:53 PM

Today, HTC announced a new Windows Mobile 6-equipped touch screen smart device. The HTC Touch Dual is the latest in the company's line of TouchFLO devices, and will be available in Europe later this month.

HTC works with Devicewire and Expansys as direct retailers of its product line. Unfortunately for United States consumers, the Touch Dual only comes with support for European HSDPA/GSM/EDGE networks.

The handset itself uses a 2.6-inch QVGA touch screen, has a 2 Megapixel front-facing camera optimized for video calling, Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR, and has an HTC ExtUSB interface, which is a mini-USB 2.0 and audio jack combined.

Most painfully obvious is the similarity between this device and the headline-hogging iPhone. Even the product demo on HTC's site is almost identical to an iPhone demo from several months ago. For a side-by-side comparison, view the HTC TouchFLO demo against the iPhone Commercial.

HTC Touch DualThe TouchFLO technology has been expanded from the previous incarnation on the HTC Touch, as it now includes photo slideshows and image manipulation with on-screen controls, and simple touch browsing of both the device and the internet.

Unfortunately, due to the similarity to the iPhone, a device that could stand on its own merits may just be written off as a Windows-based iClone. But HTC has combined the idea from one of the most popular devices in recent history with a mobile version of one of the most popular operating systems available.

A Pablo Picasso quote of dubious origin says: "Bad artists copy, Great artists steal." Some may take a look at this new device and see that it goes beyond the realm of copycat and into the realm of genius.

Comments

does anyone know any software that you can use on your pc, to make it act like a bluetooth headset?

like using a bluetooth adapter in a carpc, the software required, i have tried phoco, but it does not work with most the phones i have tried on it, and one that actually did, the v710, it offered no audio transfer, just used the phone for the call, not through the speakers and mic.

thats what i want to do, use the speakers and mic, on the pc, at home, as my headset :)

Score: 0

|

so will the w960i be tagged another i-clone when sony-ericsson releases its w960 phone which has been scheduled for long before the iphone came out?

Score: 0

|

I hate how some people think Phone + Touch screen Must = iPhone. HTC has had touch screen devices for a lot longer than the iPhone has been released.
This phone looks and acts nothing like an iPhone. What's really sad is that apart from the form factor (which is a slider with a touch screen, probably been done before), there's actually nothing new in this phone either, it's just a different combination of existing technologies focused at a specific user group (that, believe me, will have almost nothing in common with the majority of iPhone users).
This is a great example of an article that contributes nothing other than conjecture and FUD that Apple fanboys will lap up.

Score: 0

|

sorry the truth bothers you so much. it is obviously a blantant attempt to clone the iPhone, which fails miserably btw.

Score: 0

|

....and El Dingo calls *me* a Tool.

*laughs*

Quick, tell me "I don't get it" again and call me an M$ (Sorry, DJ) drone. We know you're dying to.

Score: 0

|

"Even the product demo on HTC's site is almost identical to an iPhone demo from several months ago."

HTC even copied the iPhone's iBlackBackgroundInAdvertisement.

Score: 0

|

yah uh, the HTC P4000, was out way before the iphone, and it was a touch screen phone, and uh.. there was a few out before that as well... soo iphone is a theif! (haha) no but seriously, they designed nothing new for a touch screen phone, sept itunes intigrations etc.. but the touch screen is nothing new..

Score: 0

|

I just love the fact that Apple can take an existing technology and convince the world that it's their invention. And also that every other product out there is copying Apple's products. It's just amazing, I love it!!! Steve Jobs is truly a great bull$h!t artist. (I'm not being sarcastic or bashing it's an actual complement.) LOL

Score: 0

|

If there is clone, it's Apple copying from HTC.

Score: 0

|

^This^

Score: 0

|

HTC has been an industry leader, and this hardly will get mistaken for an iPhone.

Funny; "headline hogging". Pot, kettle, black!

Score: 0

|

Ummm my palm pilot phone is a touch device and has been out years before the Iphone. I guess the Iphone is a Palm clone?

Score: 0

|

That, I believe is the joke implied in the headline. :)

Score: 0

|

So every touch-enabled device is now a iphone clone?

thats funny.

So i'm guessing windows mobile stole its calender idea from the Iphone too, right?

oh wait ... thats the other way around.

Score: 0

|

That looks NOTHING like an iPhone. What a fake headline.

Score: 0

|

He's talking about the tech behind it, not the look.

Score: 0

|

Again, PC_Tool understands what I'm on about!

Score: 0

|

what I'm on about

Heh...

We know a little more about you now... :p (or can at least jump to wild conclusions, which I'm sure you've noticed we are *really* good at here)

Score: 0

|

Well, they claim to have been developing the touch technology for a few years. After all, the HTC Touch did launch before iPhone did. Only iPhone was announced first.

Score: 0

|

Silverlight 3 goes live on Microsoft's servers

Microsoft's answer to Adobe's Flash is (unofficially) here, with prospects of higher-speed, higher-resolution video and for the first time, 3D.

Three Android phones on the way from T-Mobile in 2009

T-Mobile's myTouch 3G, launched Wednesday, will be followed by two more Android phones later this year, but neither of them will be HTC's Hero.

Best Buy-brand TVs to get TiVo

A new alliance will place the retailer's own brand alongide the manufacturers, and could also lead to future partnerships on services.

LTE still lacks a voice

The 4G Wireless standard that Verizon hopes to show off before this year is out is still at a loss for (spoken) words.

Data sharing among online advertisers: Is sanity in sight?

Lockdown with Angela Gunn In the middle of a 15-page plea not to get regulated, a spark of smart thinking.

T-Mobile's strategy to combat Apple's iPhone with Android

With a trio of Android phones now in the pipeline for 2009, T-Mobile hopes to break the iPhone's emerging stranglehold.

EC's Reding: Government should act as broker for media downloads

If Internet media services don't step up and build an attractive way for users to start paying for downloads, a commissioner says, government may do the job instead.

Sony TVs get Netflix, still no PS3

Though it's coming in behind LG, Samsung, and Microsoft, Sony will begin to offer Netflix streaming, too.

Google Chrome OS: Too little, too early

Carmi Levy: Wide Angle Zoom Don't start the revolution just yet, says Carmi, who isn't so certain Chrome OS will be the "Windows Killer."

GAO pen test brings the hammer down on federal rent-a-cops

But are the computers to blame for the contract-guard fiasco at FPS?

What's Next: Chrome OS will have at least some friends in high places

Also: South Korea takes another round of DDoS abuse, and Neelie Kroes and Steve Ballmer may shake hands before she exits stage left.

Report: Evidence of further creativity with Windows 7 upgrade prices

A ZDNet blogger did some serious digging for clues as to a reported price break on multiple Windows 7 Home Premium licenses, and may have found it.