Windows Phone Thoughts - Daily News, Views, Rants and Raves

"Lookie what we have here... The little the phone that never goes away quits. The less than impressive HTC Opal landed in the hands of the FCC this week showing off its 850/1900 GSM support and not so blazing EDGE capabilities. After the HTC Touch HD was canceled for North America, we were hoping to see something a bit more exciting than the underpowered HTC Opal but it looks like we have to take what we can get. We're still not sure who fell asleep at the wheel on this one - are any of you guys looking forward to it?"

HTC's low-end Opal has apparently made it's way through the FCC testing. There is some speculation that the Opal will replace the very similar basic Touch model in HTC's offering lineup. Not exactly the Touch HD many were hoping for, but should fit the bill for an entry-level smartphone. There have been no carrier or cost annoucements yet.

"According to smartmobilegadgets blog, HTC is working on a new Windows Mobile Professional smartphone which is expected to be released soon. The HTC Opal, which is most likely a codename only, seems to be HTC's planned low-entry follower of the HTC Touch and like the HTC Touch, also the HTC Opal is a 2.5G Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional smartphone supporting quadband GSM/GPRS/EDGE only. UMTS and HSDPA are left, most likely in favor of the price. Nevertheless. WiFi b/g as well as Bluetooth 2.0 are also part of the HTC Opal. Also the HTC Opal is expected to be powered by a TI OMAP 850 CPU at 200 MHz only."

Following the release of HTC flagship Windows Mobile phones in the Touch Diamond and Touch Pro, it looks like a low-end Touch phone is in the works. In this case, low-end still means quadband GSM/GPRS/EDGE, Bluetooth and WiFi b/g, along with a MicroSD expansion slot. Smartmobilegadgets blog has a PDF showing it's planned features. HTC Source is reporting the phone will be released as the HTC Viva and credits Windows Mobile Italy (whom first broke the news about this product) in saying the Viva will first be marketed in Asia under the Dopod brand name beginning on September 15th.