HTC Evo in Ireland

uvox

Any insight into the availability of the HTC Evo through vodafone, meteor, 02, etc in the Republic of Ireland?

Sure love to have one. It's releasing in the UK this summer, I think. But nothing heard about Ireland...

partyatmygaff

It's not releasing anywhere outside of the USA. Importing is not an option either as it won't work over here. The EVO is a CDMA phone and no network in Ireland (Or Europe) uses CDMA.

uvox

Thanks for the explanation. What is my closest alternative? Wait for the google phone? Another HTC option? Kinda limited without OOTB appstore access isn't it?

partyatmygaff

uvox wrote: »

Thanks for the explanation. What is my closest alternative? Wait for the google phone? Another HTC option? Kinda limited without OOTB appstore access isn't it?

What do you mean? The Google Phone (First the HTC G1 and Now the Nexus One) has been out for a long long time. The HTC Desire is the exact same as the Nexus One barr a few slight changes. They all have out of the box market access.

uvox

Thanks - that's useful. Will check it out.

godskitchen

The EVO will come here, under a different name and without the 4G radio.

Once the Desire stock has been sold you will see an EVO here. HTC do it all the time.

partyatmygaff

godskitchen wrote: »

The EVO will come here, under a different name and without the 4G radio.

Once the Desire stock has been sold you will see an EVO here. HTC do it all the time.

I doubt that to be quite honest.

HTC have another phone coming out in next few months (I'm thinking Q4) called the HTC Vision which is a HTC Desire with a slide out qwerty keyboard. They will be the very same phone (Even in styling) with the only difference being the fact that the vision will have a qwerty keyboard.

The EVO and the Incredible however are more than likely not going to ever see outside of the states.

Venom

partyatmygaff wrote: »

I doubt that to be quite honest.

HTC have another phone coming out in next few months (I'm thinking Q4) called the HTC Vision which is a HTC Desire with a slide out qwerty keyboard. They will be the very same phone (Even in styling) with the only difference being the fact that the vision will have a qwerty keyboard.

The EVO and the Incredible however are more than likely not going to ever see outside of the states.

Details are starting to surface about the HTC Scorpion with its 1.5mhz chip-set.

partyatmygaff

Venom wrote: »

Details are starting to surface about the HTC Scorpion with its 1.5mhz chip-set.

Which is heading for Verizon USA

They use CDMA bands which aren't used in Ireland.

mkennedy

partyatmygaff wrote: »

I doubt that to be quite honest.

HTC have another phone coming out in next few months (I'm thinking Q4) called the HTC Vision which is a HTC Desire with a slide out qwerty keyboard. They will be the very same phone (Even in styling) with the only difference being the fact that the vision will have a qwerty keyboard.

The EVO and the Incredible however are more than likely not going to ever see outside of the states.

That Vision sounds interesting.
Wouldn't mind a slide out qwerty.

Venom

partyatmygaff wrote: »

Which is heading for Verizon USA

They use CDMA bands which aren't used in Ireland.

True, but no reason HTC won't hit the European market with a phone with the same chip.

partyatmygaff

Venom wrote: »

True, but no reason HTC won't hit the European market with a phone with the same chip.

Not until Q3/Q4 i'd expect.

Brian

partyatmygaff wrote: »

Not until Q3/Q4 i'd expect.

Just in time for my wallet to recover from the Nexus One :pac:

Google're gonna have to get something out sharpish after the iPhone 4, to continue this EVO 4G momentum. Shadow may well be it, but it seems quite iterative from what I've seen so far.

djgaillimh

yeah, iPhone specs will be the deciding factor. If it blows away the rest, we might see a newer HTC model by Autumn.

Its screen is pretty high res, by all accounts, so that's one area where its already got the edge.

maggy_thatcher

partyatmygaff wrote: »

They all have out of the box market access.

They have OOTB market access, but only to free apps, as Irish money isn't good enough for Google :mad:

djgaillimh

Big market overhaul on the way for FroYo, though. We'll see what happens then.

Solair

HTC is supplying quite a lot of handsets to the niche market that is CDMA. Those networks were largely overlooked by other smartphone makers over the years.

I've no doubt that HTC will launch some of the first handsets on genuine 4G i.e. LTE which is due to launch commercially here fairly soon.

Don't get too impressed by the use of the term "4G" in the united states at the moment. Some of the handsets on offer branded as 4G are jus using CDMA 2G/3G and then using a WiMax connection in limited areas for "4G" data using clearwire's network.

The speeds aren't all tha impressive and can be matched or bettered by European HSPA+ 3.75G networks.

LTE is the 4th step in the Euro terminology for mobile phones.

1G - Analogue e.g. TACS (the old 088 eircell), NMT etc etc. Non standardised
2G - GSM & GPRS data
2.75G - GSM & EDGE
3G - UMTS
3.5G - UMTS & HSPDA mobile broadband
3.75G - UMTS & HSPA+ enhanced mobile broadband
4G - LTE

from 2G to 4G handsets and networks are all standardised, open and modular and fully backwards compatible. That's the main reason why the GSM family of standards is the de facto global standard for mobile communications.

partyatmygaff

maggy_thatcher wrote: »

They have OOTB market access, but only to free apps, as Irish money isn't good enough for Google :mad:

There are legal licensing issues that must be taken care of before Google open up paid apps in Ireland

Brian

How come Apple can get those issues sorted that much quicker?

maggy_thatcher

partyatmygaff wrote: »

There are legal licensing issues that must be taken care of before Google open up paid apps in Ireland

I thought the whole thing about the EU market was that if you could sell to one you could sell to them all? Google sell to the UK, therefore they sell inside the EU, therefore there is no logical reason why they can't sell to the rest of the EU (even if they sell in GBP).

partyatmygaff

maggy_thatcher wrote: »

I thought the whole thing about the EU market was that if you could sell to one you could sell to them all? Google sell to the UK, therefore they sell inside the EU, therefore there is no logical reason why they can't sell to the rest of the EU (even if they sell in GBP).

It doesn't work like that i'm afraid. It allow free trade between EU states. As you can imagine, the market consists of developers from across the world

maggy_thatcher

partyatmygaff wrote: »

It doesn't work like that i'm afraid. It allow free trade between EU states. As you can imagine, the market consists of developers from across the world

They import the product from the worldwide developer market into the EU. Once it is here, they can sell it to anybody within the EU - exactly the same way that companies such as Amazon.co.uk sell to anybody in the EU, not just those inside the UK.

Just because Google make life difficult for themselves doesn't mean it has to be that way.

Either way, it's a significant obstacle to Android in Ireland - the fact that you have to go and find an alternate market store to sell apps (if you're an Irish developer), and an alternate market store to buy apps (or root your phone) if you're an Irish consumer.

Brian

Fyi, applications have to be sold in the currency of their local market. If a developer's local market doesn't support paid apps, they can't sell them either.

Client404

uvox wrote: »

Any insight into the availability of the HTC Evo through vodafone, meteor, 02, etc in the Republic of Ireland?

Sure love to have one. It's releasing in the UK this summer, I think. But nothing heard about Ireland...

Phonesonline already has a sim free version that'll work in Ireland waiting in line. Don't be put off by the misinformation here just yet

Brian

lolno. I take it "phonesonline" are running their own local CDMA network then? Even if there are pockets of WiMax around Dublin, the EVO 4G only uses it for data.

Client404

Baza210 wrote: »

lolno. I take it "phonesonline" are running their own local CDMA network then? Even if there are pockets of WiMax around Dublin, the EVO 4G only uses it for data.

I don't suppose so. But the sure thing is, it'll be a business disaster to keep a phone like Evo barricaded in *just* the US. If HD2 can work in Ireland, then I don't see why Evo can't be configured to do the same (and yeah I get the difference), but personally I'm more interested in the specs than anything else. I can't imagine why HTC would be incapable of doing Evo with the same specs minus CDMA. Can you?

zod

apparently significant problems with the EVO battery


http://techcrunch.com/2010/06/09/dont-buy-the-android-evo-it-is-a-seriously-flawed-device/

Venom

Client404 wrote: »

I don't suppose so. But the sure thing is, it'll be a business disaster to keep a phone like Evo barricaded in *just* the US. If HD2 can work in Ireland, then I don't see why Evo can't be configured to do the same (and yeah I get the difference), but personally I'm more interested in the specs than anything else. I can't imagine why HTC would be incapable of doing Evo with the same specs minus CDMA. Can you?

Might be some sort of exclusive deal with the Carrier in the states.

Client404

zod wrote: »

apparently significant problems with the EVO battery


http://techcrunch.com/2010/06/09/dont-buy-the-android-evo-it-is-a-seriously-flawed-device/

I like "techcrunch," but that's just one man's opinion - Although it's still worth noting.

However, if you read most of the comments under the article, you can quickly see that a lot of people who actually own EVO, completely disagree. Some even claim the battery is better than Pre and some other prominent phones (from their experience). Besides, having a title such as "Don’t Buy The HTC EVO, It Is A Seriously Flawed Device," is a bit unprofessional... don't you think?

But anyway, thanks for pointing it out. It's worth doing a bit more research on.

Client404

Venom wrote: »

Might be some sort of exclusive deal with the Carrier in the states.

That's a possibility. If I were HTC though, I'd be stabbing myself in the eye with a needle at this point, based on the fact that the phone is actually very popular, and could've broken more barriers for HTC in other countries other than the US. Would be a pretty dumb exclusive deal, and generally a bad business decision for HTC in my opinion. But eh... you never know... Maybe you're right.

Venom

Client404 wrote: »

That's a possibility. If I were HTC though, I'd be stabbing myself in the eye with a needle at this point, based on the fact that the phone is actually very popular, and could've broken more barriers for HTC in other countries other than the US. Would be a pretty dumb exclusive deal, and generally a bad business decision for HTC in my opinion. But eh... you never know... Maybe you're right.

Not really. Im sure HTC will have an Evo specced device with a new design for Europe soon just like they did with the Incredible/Desire. a few weeks for the iphone 4 hype to ease down may show some really interesting releases.