HTC to BREW-up some new phones for Verizon and Sprint in 2010?

posted by Alan F. / Nov 19, 2009, 1:34 PM

This article contains unofficial information.

HTC to BREW-up some new phones for Verizon and Sprint in 2010?

While well known for making distinctive smartphones, including the HD2 which was recently launched overseas, Digitimes is reporting that HTC will be making high end BREW based featurephones for launch early next year. Using Qualcomm's BREW Mobile Platform, the handsets were originally planned for late 2009. The delay is apparently due to Qualcomm Brew’s "relatively immature application service platform offering for telecom carriers," according to the site. Qualcomm is working with developers to create apps for web browsing, GPS, multimedia management and mobile community services. In the U.S., expect Verizon and Sprint to be offering these models sometime early next year.

source: Digitimes via Unwiredview

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13 Comments

1. vzw fanman

Posts: 1977; Member since: Dec 11, 2008

haha, i love the title. pun intended? very exciting..

posted on Oct 20, 2010, 1:44 AM 0

2. rjt185

Posts: 257; Member since: Jun 11, 2009

And so the line between the "dumb" and "smart" phone continues to blurr. :-) Hopefully the new features and programming will be backwards compatible with my enV Touc. w00t.

posted on Nov 19, 2009, 2:42 PM 0

12. Doakie

Posts: 2478; Member since: May 06, 2009

I agree that the lines between dumb and smart continue to blur. Cus I just returned an Instinct HD, very good phone hardware. I loved the phones hardware but hated the OS' bugginess. Very capable OS if I didnt know that the definition for a Smartphone was being able to install native applications, I'd have thought it was a smartphone. But i know better and knew I was buying a featurephone that specialized on high res pictures/video. I had issues with having SMS messages crashing the OS when a text came in while I was doing anything else. From listening to music, to replying to emails, if a SMS came in the screen would go all garbled and the phone would hang. Which would lead to it auto rebooting. Which I really wouldnt have had a problem with and I would have dealt with it even at $250 except the last time it did it it also nuked my sms history. So the client I had who was asking me questions about a real estate deal his history disappeared and I couldn't remember what he was asking. That was the last day I could put up with the bugs. Hopefully BREW matures to the point that bugs like this dont happen anymore. I would have wrote it off as a bug between Sprints Mobile Email program and the phones OS, but it would crash out whenever I was "multi-tasking." Doing anything while a sms came in spelled disaster. blah blah blah. So I didnt realize the enV Touch was a BREW based OS. Good to know. Were all the enVs interfaces based on BREW?

posted on Nov 20, 2009, 2:43 AM 0

3. jrcrow79

Posts: 477; Member since: May 02, 2008

Sprint is lucky to stay in business until next year!..lol

posted on Nov 19, 2009, 4:23 PM 0

4. Kiltlifter

Posts: 742; Member since: Dec 11, 2008

Even with 40 million subs and bleeding 1million/year, sprint still stands to last another 5-10 years at least... but not much longer when LTE is the Global standard and Sprint is the only company in the world using WiMax. Google and Time Warner have officially said they will no longer put money into wimax. Sorry sprint, get with the program or continue to bleed.

posted on Nov 19, 2009, 5:16 PM 0

5. The Doc

Posts: 122; Member since: Dec 11, 2008

Yay! The courts denied the request from At&t which requested Verizon to withdraw its "map" commercials. "A small step for man. A giant step for mankind..." :P

posted on Nov 19, 2009, 5:55 PM 0

9. YouLostTheGame

Posts: 441; Member since: Dec 11, 2008

Uh sorry buddy, but you've got the wrong article!

posted on Nov 19, 2009, 9:56 PM 0

6. crd22

Posts: 77; Member since: Apr 15, 2008

I hope my eyes do deceive me and I am not reading that HTC will make dumbphones...

posted on Nov 19, 2009, 7:13 PM 0

7. htc_prep

Posts: 303; Member since: Oct 09, 2009

this is an article about how HTC is shooting them selves in the foot for going backwards to a sub par opp system that doesnt sound to be fully developed. and it changed to how you want sprint to fail (i fail to see point in wishing for something pointless how is it going to benefit you if sprint crumbles... well no response necessary) and at&t / verizions battle pops up. wtf. do we not know how to stay on track. my opinion on the ARTICLE is that HTC is wasting time on a project thats more then likely going to go no where

posted on Nov 19, 2009, 7:20 PM 0

8. som

Posts: 768; Member since: Nov 10, 2009

HIGH TECH COMPUTER (HTC) is making same model phone for Verizon and Sprint you know HTC should make different model for different carrier.

posted on Nov 19, 2009, 7:58 PM 0

10. Quemical

Posts: 162; Member since: Jul 14, 2009

A htc envtouch?? I Weep for mankind.........

posted on Nov 20, 2009, 12:22 AM 0

11. koolerz1569

Posts: 8; Member since: Nov 12, 2009

BREW totally sucks. Can't even find good apps/cheap apps on their platform. I'm using an enV touch. I should hve waited for the Eris to come.. They are about the same price now. $99 after rebates. So sad... And again, BREW, u suck

posted on Nov 20, 2009, 12:51 AM 0

13. Doakie

Posts: 2478; Member since: May 06, 2009

I agree with you now. I really like the layout of the Instincts(especially the HDs) BREW OS, however I think Samsung and Sprint would have done a lot better to have just installed Android on the Instinct HD and made a skin for it that looked like the original Instincts layout. I know it would have been just some frowned upon idea, but I would have loved it. I commented above as to how I disliked the bugginess on the IHD. I really think they should have done a different OS on it tho cus it has a back button, home button and a phone button. They would have just had to add a on screen answer button and menu button and could have thrown Android on the Instinct HD. Seriously what a waste of awesome hardware. And for those who might flame me that the IHD has a weak proc inside, on the Instinct owner forums they were discussing that the IHD has the same speed of proc as the G1. So it could have worked. And could you have imagined how everyone would have flipped over the first HD video camera in a US phone being an Android phone? Samsung blew it.

posted on Nov 20, 2009, 2:51 AM 0

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