HTC and Honeycomb - Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Wonder is the feeling of a philosopher, and philosophy begins in wonder

Socrates, Plato Theotetus

It seems that in all the furor and “ooh-ing” and “ahh-ing” over the Motorola Xoom (pronounced zoom!), HTC, the little unknown Taiwanese company, has again slipped into the background. Like the Mavado song Starlight (2010), this company went from nothing to something as chronicled in the detailed expose article “A former no-Name from Taiwan Builds a Global Brand”, published October 28, 2010, 11:20AM EST by Bruce Einhorn, TECHNOLOGY - BusinessWeek.

And what a fascinating tale! From making phones for other companies to making their own branded phone the Google Android powered T-Mobile G1 in 2008. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) indeed!

However, their greatest coupe thus far was being the manufacturer of choice for Google’s debutante, the Google Nexus One in 2009. However, HTC has the proud distinction of being the first to define an Apple iPhone competitor, a justly deserved title in the article “Taiwan's HTC: iPhone's Quiet Challenger”, published Sunday September 5, 2010 10:29 pm ET by Joe McDonald, AP Business Writer, Yahoo! News.

Phones emerged from their design studios worthy of its name, the HTC Droid Incredible on Telecom Provider Verizon and the first WiMax 4G Mobile (IEEE 802.11n) smartphone, the HTC Evo 4G on Telecom Provider Sprint’s Network, creating HUGE overwhelming demand – and the legendary smartphone shortage of the summer of 2010 as stated in the article “HTC Evo 4G, Incredible shortages make room for Droid X”, published July 12, 2010 7:44 AM by Jared Newman, PC World.

The Apple iPad Tablet had now racking up nearly seventeen million (17,000,000) Apple iPads sold worldwide in 2010 alone with a projected forty four million six hundred thousand (44,6000,000) in 2011 and seventy million, eight hundred thousand (70,800,000) projected for 2012 (just in time for the London Olympics 2012!) according to analyst IDC as stated in the article “IDC: Apple iPad secures 87 percent market”, published January 18, 2011 1:50 PM PST by Don Reisinger, CNET News- The Digital Home. So what is HTC planning for the Tablet scene?

For one, they had decided, wisely, to await the coming of Google Android OS 2.4 aka Honeycomb as stated in the article “HTC waiting until next year for Android 3.0 Tablet?”, published Wednesday September 15,2010 12:53 pm ET, Yahoo! News. Well, folks, it looks like some news is surfacing as to this mystery Tablet that HTC is planning to bring out.

Word has it that the HTC Tablet, codenamed the “Flyer” is a bigger version of their HTC Desire smartphone and is running on Google Android OS 2.4 aka Honeycomb packing a Nvidia Tegra 2 dual-core processor (graphics display?!), 2GB Internal memory extendable with a 32GB SD card slot and the usual motley crue of power slurping Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.1n), GPS, Bluetooth, etc, which one would assume to be now standard on a Tablet.

The debutante will makes it grand appearance in March 2011 and as with its smartphone presence, may indeed be the belle of the ball. Battery life not included and three (3) other models each sold separately!

So says the following articles:

1.      “HTC flyer Tablet tipped for US landing in March 2011 to be followed by two more slates in June”, by Vlad Savov posted Jan 20th 2011 1:33AM , EnGadget

2.      “Report: HTC Planning Three Android Tablets in 2011”, published January 20, 2011 5:09 pm by Mike Isaac, Wired.com\

3.      “HTC rumoured to be readying an Android Tablet for Q1 2011”, published September 20, 2010 4:22 PM PDT by Scott Webster, CNET News - Android Atlas.

So, as if that is not enough to make you “Desire” this Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), recent details coming straight out of mouth of The Tech Herald solidify the cooling liquid metal into a solid polymorphous crystalline structure – my keyboard waxes melodic again!

According to the article “Fresh details emerge regarding HTC flyer Tablet”, published January 26 2011, 10:12 by Steven Mostyn, The Tech Herald the Tablet is not a 10” incher but a 7” inch capacitive touch screen, sporting the HTC Desire's 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8255 and a front-facing 1.3 mega-pixel camera complemented with a rear-facing 5.0 mega-pixel camera. Sweet!

Battery life still not included and no mention of a Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n) only version being sold separately as CNET Writer Donald Bell opines in his article “Reasons the Motorola Xoom may fall flat”, published January 25, 2011 8:20 AM PST by Donald Bell, CNET News - Crave! Hopefully HTC will price this device sans a contract and word of a Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n) only version should surface – including information on the battery life before March 2011.

By then, the Motorola Xoom will be out, possibly to be launched on the same day, Thursday February 10^th 2010, as the CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) Apple iPhone for Telecom Provider Verizon as stated in the article “Verizon to start selling iPhone on Feb. 10”, published January 11, 2011, Yahoo! News.

The RIM Playbook, also looking to crash Apple’s Cart, may also spring a shuriken attack on the same date with its Playbook so aptly described in my blog article entitled “RIM and the PlayBook - Blade II”.

The Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) is looking great and is coiled……..tense, waiting to pounce.