HTC is Taiwanese... no wonder they won't let us have it when we don't even care where they're from!!

It's all your fault John!

kidding. who needs the world anyway.

001

@jinnman: I think all of North America has been screwed over, just from the sounds of it.

Toastie

@Advil101:
As if

rattyuk

NOOOOOO!
I've been looking for a reason to ditch my iPhone 3g :(

Advil101

and Canada?

jinnman

@Ike_Skelton: No its not. Taiwan is a democratic state, China is a communist state that wants to reunify with Taiwan.

Aturayd

@Ike_Skelton:

They are separate countries. Only China claims they own it. The USA are selling arms directly to Taiwan.

k2snowboards88

Thats it. I'm moving to Europe. Still deciding between France of Germany... (or any other country that sells the damned thing.)

But... looking at the image... isnt that a touch diamond? would the touch diamond WANT its big brother to come along and accompany him against the big bully iPhone...

seriously now.

MadColombian

Great. Now I feel like I'm "settling" for a touch Pro...

chrisaroz

@001: Taiwan is part of China.

Ike_Skelton

Looks like they read the 'how to buy gadgets in China and not get screwed' post and figured that they could eliminate the whole buying the gadgets part and skip straight ahead to the screwed part.

Jasontrainer

"by the time we could bring Touch HD to the States, it would be old news"

What - is it taking the slow boat from China?!

OMG! Ponies!

There is nothing in the class of a iPhone at this point. Say what you want. Maybe someday they will catch up. But to this point most of these iPhone -killer reviews are nothing but hot air or carrier jealousy!

dylan214u

The G1 is more exciting?

Well slap my ass n' call me Judy. I'm flabbergasted.

Kaiser-Machead's LEGO WALL-E

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

wngchng87

So major companies are making final words on product releases on Twitter? Not on their site, in a rep interview, or through any press release? Riiight.

Think about it. Anyone who even knows of the Touch HD is not an average consumer, so announcing something like this on twitter will get to that audience and not upset anyone else. They know many of them will be waiting for any word on a US release before dropping cash on something else, even if it means waiting until sometime later next year. That is not good for their current sales.

That "other cool stuff coming" line could just be a HD with minor changes or even an android version for when it does show up here. I'm taking this with a huge grain of salt until I see something more 'official'.

TKWarrior

@Aturayd: OK! I'll fix it!

John Herrman

So HTC is taking a page from Nokia's playbook. Good work guys..

Jrsy is the dude, playing the dude, disguised as another dude

@Kaiser-Machead's LEGO WALL-E: Hi Judy, nice to meet you.

Jrsy is the dude, playing the dude, disguised as another dude

I still have faith that HTC will bring this phone to the U.S. but it won't come until next year and sales of the Touch Diamond and Touch Pro must be high for this to happen. Come on HTC, we want that Touch HD in the U.S. We're beggin ya.

mr. HiDefinition

@001: Why don't you go ask China if Taiwan belongs to them? Has Taiwan seceded? Didn't think so.

Ike_Skelton

that sucks

chumleyex

@Advil101: hate to tell you but the comparison is massive. The Touch is laggy as hell, has a horrible UI and doesn't get near the iphone. We have been testing one here at work for over 3 months now and I can assure you, its nothing special.

imTheKing

so everyone went hot and biscuits for two weeks over something that they wont even see or use in person, wow

bishara

I wonder what really stopping them. It's not like they can't. I think this thing will be very well recieved in America. Then again there are plenty of Touch Devices out now including a few of HTC's own. Hopefully they'll get it here soon. It really was the only phone I'd sell my iPhone for.

Rondogg96

13:36!? What! That is the unleetest thing I have ever seen. No one buy this product.

TheTheTheTheWhat

@Ike_Skelton: Taiwan is independent from China, but they are not recognized by the U.N. (China's influence). While China insists that Taiwan is part of them, Taiwan fiercely disagrees. Most of Asia does not see Taiwan as independent though. It's very complicated.

Toastie

"Sad news, US. we looked into it- by the time we could bring Touch HD to the States, it would be old news. We do have other cool stuff coming."

Maybe the reason why HTC doesn't want to bring it to the states because people are still obsessed with their iPhones?

SpiffySteve

The graphics on the phone look sweet though. It comes with auto-focus too and you control the area you want the camera to focus by touching the spot on the screen which I think is pretty neat. Zooming into the text while browsing requires just one finger touch. The only problem for this phone is that it doesn't have flash for a 5 MP camera.

SpiffySteve

@bishara: not really. Not everyone reading gizmodo lives in the US, you know.

JemimaSheep

@SpiffySteve:

I don't know, my work just bought a couple iPhone 3Gs for two new lawyers and I set them up for push mail with our exchange server. I thought the interface was nice, but when it comes down to nuts and bolts, my Tilt could do much more. I was really looking forward to the Touch HD. I will just keep on using my Tilt considering the cost I paid for it. I don't usually upgrade phones/pda as often as many, but I probably would have for the Touch HD.

isgrimner

@Toastie: I'm well aware; I wrote my thesis on this subject. :)

Ike_Skelton

This is a huge loss for the US. Many people who are upset with the performance of the iphone 3g would probably have made the switch, considering it had everyhting that the iphone did not. Anyone know of a petition to get this thing here? Not that petitions do much of anything, but i feel i must do something to not let this slip away.

rock99rock

@dylan214u: (and then he wakes up from his apple induced coma)

rock99rock

@Kaiser-Machead's LEGO WALL-E: *SLAP*

bpapa9013

@chrisaroz: Or you could "settle" for a iPhone (I wouldn't recommend it, but I just wanted to word it that way for personal satisfaction).

bpapa9013

@imTheKing: LOL @ Fanboi

bpapa9013

Wait, wait, wait! What about that FCC filing for the Euro-3G version of the phone? How can they pull one of those and claim the phone isn't coming here? And then, how difficult is is to slap US 3G on the #$%@ thing and wack the FCC upside the head with it?!??

DoomGaZer

I still have a hard time swallowing the idea that HTC has started making official statements through Twitter. But if we're going to believe Twitter postings, supposedly HTC followed this up after a large Twitterer outcry, saying they would take it up with the higher-ups and try to change some minds.

blitzkrieg999

@isgrimner: I also have a Tilt, and I was thinking the EXACT same thing.

Maybe the next iPhone will come with less weaksauce and coolaid. I might consider one then... Actually, nope.

bpapa9013

It's probably because Sprint made the Touch Diamond look stupid. They don't want that to happen with the HD!

midwestkel

Well this news sucks. I've been looking around and thinking it was finally time to get a smartphone and I wanted one with Windows Mobile on it and this one looked like the bees knees but I figured it would be like pulling teeth to get one and make it work. Seems I was right.

So riddle me this since I don't know much about HTC...do any carriers in the US use HTC phones? If not, how do you go about getting one here? If not the Touch HD and definately not the iPhone, then what smartphones do you people like? I saw a mention of the Tilt and I've been eyeballing the BlackJack II. What else is worthy of my $$$?

fsusmithc2

@JemimaSheep: true, i dont live in the US.
but since gizmodo is US centric and google is US based,
seems kinda redundant the amount of effort went into covering the HTC
reviews and speculations, but missed the point that it wont get there to begin with. it looked cheap to me, and still does, makes no difference :)

bishara

*cries*

*cries some more*

andrewkfromaz

"Sad news, US. we looked into it- by the time we could bring Touch HD to the States, it would be old news. We do have other cool stuff coming." ...which the U.S. won't see either. Thanks HTC!

SaudaminiTydeus

"Sad news, US. we looked into it- by the time we could bring Touch HD to the States, it would be old news." Would it take 2 years for this phone to come here, how would it be old news. I haven't seen any phones in the US that have the specs of this phone in the pipe line. Maybe they don't want money

AaronCodrus

Its probably because of FCC regulations that they cannot bring it to the U.S. The FCC will put it through a number of grueling tests that take months and by then you'll have a number of other phones in the market with higher specs and less lag during usage... having said that... I would also think that in a few more months HTC would have updated the firmware and made it snappier... faster... and more attractive as a purchase. I wonder what else is bothering HTC to make them give up on the US... makes me glad that I dont live stateside.

QuillanTobias

THE FUCK?!!!

Why? are they stupid or something? Why would you do that? I wanted one really bad.

Oh well, I guess I get a crappy iPhone.

Glare

@imTheKing: (of fanboys?)
And some people don't like Porches or Ferraris either...

aec007

@imTheKing: well this is the HD that supposedly should solve the lagging.. The reports I have seen at least.

krisve

I just want a Touch Pro. WHERE IS MY TOUCH PRO? Arrgh.

MountainDrew

@jinnman: Yeah. Canada runs on the same frequencies as the States.

Aaron Martin-Colby

As the months go buy, my Iphone purchase just makes me happier and happier. No carrier seems to even want to create a competitive device. Apple started late and gained 70% market share for music players. Wonder what is instore for Iphone market share.

SuperSan

I was also hoping for an excuse to drive over my iPoophone (no, I'm not selling as I want the satisfaction of hearing it go *crunch*) but it don't look like that's out the window.

Conspiracy theory of the day: Apple paid off HTC not to bring it here. Spread it around as a mention from one of HTC ninjas.

cynep

@fsusmithc2:

These are HTC phones

[forum.xda-developers.com]

If not the Touch HD or iphone, maybe the BB Storm. Either way, HTC dropped the ball big time here.

rock99rock

@wngchng87: HISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!

TheMurderer

Let me know if you just have to have one. They sell them here in Switzerland without contract. Cost plus shipping and my small fee set you back roughly $1000.

Tex1961

Most iPhone users don't want these "other capabilities" that Jobs has convinced them they don't need - until of course said features are released and they are convinced Apple came out with them first and everyone else copied.

Either way, I would guess that even if the Touch HD in its current iteration never makes it to the US, most of it's better aspects will make it into handsets that will see US release.

It's like showing a concept car - many times these are exercises in design and engineering to see what the public responds to. You then hopefully see these advancements applied across the new models they release.

tech-tard

@DoomGaZer: Probably 4-6 months realistically if you count manufacturing and FCC approval times. They did say other things comparable are coming but they cannot say.

DiscoDapper

I do a lot of reading out on the xda-developers forums where you can build (cook) your own roms to load on to your HTC phone and I get the impression from everyone there that HTC is filled with extremely talented engineers and INFANTILE marketing.

Where there is customer demand, offer a product. It's that simple.

I assure you it is not that hard to "localize" a software product since I used to do that for my company. Most compilers even do EFIGSJ (English, French, Italian...etc.) automatically. Its the more unique languages that cause localization horrors.

HTC is being lazy here.

axiomatic

@AaronCodrus: The trending seems to be for shorter term announcements these days... guess they learned from the endless drum roll of Sony's xperia x1. You know... and one more thing...

DiscoDapper

@blitzkrieg999: If it's good enough for Mars Phoenix, it's good enough for HTC...

DiscoDapper

@rock99rock: Just reply @ the HTC tweet, like I'm sure probably hundreds (thousands?) have already. Well... G1 it is.

DiscoDapper

In my mind ONLY iphone competitor.

MatthewMace

Ugh.... Are you serious? Wtf....

Is the phone being shipped over here on a Turtles back?!

If I buy this phone from Europe can I use it with Verizon?

Adex2491

@Ike_Skelton:
hey, it doesnt matter what you think.
Point is, Taiwanese people don't like being called Chinese. PERIOD. and if you read the bio of the people behind HTC, they are as Taiwanese as it gets.

and that's why if you treat them with your brand of i-know-it-all attitude about who their sense of identity, they are going to pretend you're right (cos they're asians) but screw you in some other ways.
like delaying your shipment or not giving you your goods. in this case the HD, hypothetically.
or they might scratch your car. or spit on your grave.
something like that. in fact, I think anyone would do that to you if you're as disrespectful as you seem to be.
Btw, out of curiosity, but if that one line "Taiwan is part of China" is the conclusion of your thesis, then post it on a blog somewhere and let me know. I'd like to read it. I figure I would be impressed by it either way, ie. either pure genius or sheer idiocy.

001

Companies never cease to amaze me.
Why would they want to bring something that could dominate the market with it's excellent design? Because they don't want to hamper the sales of the Pro and Diamond?
Screw those two! Sell the HD, and use the remaining stock of the Pro and Diamond as parts.

Craysh

@wngchng87:
RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE!

Craysh

i find it funny how the iPhone has the T-Mobile network sign in the picture...LMAO!!

sleepyyazo

Anyone think that there might be a conspiracy behind this. Think maybe Apple payed them off to remove the competition ???? Hmmmm

*pass it on*

mr30gZune

Man... I was quite excited for this or the next iteration of this phone to be my iphone 3g replacement/companion.

(by companion I mean secondary phone, although that's what I envisioned my 3g iphone as being next to my HTC Tilt, but I ended up tossing the tilt under my desk and using the iphone only. If you don't need two phones it kind of makes it harder to use both of them)

Sam_Zebian

I don't care. I'm still importing it. F the 3g

mr30gZune

Now Skeeter, leave em be, they ain't hurting nobody...

Nick_Bentley

@krisve: If you have seen the reviews. .. it has good marks. . .and its TEH AWESOME!!!!
I CAN HAZ TOUCH HD!!!. . .

I know I am late to that bus but I just felt like being a dick. . .

--Tito--

@Nick_Bentley:

We don't take kindly to companies that don't send cool phones to the U.S. :)

fsusmithc2