While HTC President Peter Chou may have described Apple’s iPhone as pretty innovative and eye-catching, don’t expect HTC to develop a similar product. Instead, HTC plans to release their own cool stuff. HTC’s plan to differentiate itself from Apple and other competitors is to continue (HTC 2007 roadmap) to come up with its own innovative designs and continuing to add Internet and computing capabilities to its devices. Given its impressive track record, we should all benefit from the additional competition.
Meanwhile, the Linux-based OpenMoko FIC Neo1973 smartphone is getting a lot more attention (including by me) than it did back when it was announced last November given some similarities to the iPhone. The specs are not final but so far it looks like like a Samsung powered device with a 2.8-inch VGA touch screen, 128MB RAM and 64M ROM, GPS, quad-band GSM/GPRS support, a microSD slot and push email and PIM synchronization support.
Check out the press release for some pictures of the user interface. Could Apple have been inspired (just a little) by the Neo1973?
The OpenMoko FIC Neo1973 is expected to start shipping in February.