A lot of people have been excitedly touting the new HTC Hero as an iPhone killer but I’m not convinced.
It has an obvious advantage over the iPhone in that it’s going to be available in the UK from both Orange and T-Mobile, but although it’s not quite as ugly as the G1, it retains that dreadful ‘chin’ from the earlier model and still looks functional rather than stylish.
As the video from makers HTC shows, the interface had had a decent and long needed makeover (the GUI on the G1 is as ugly as it’s possible to imagine) but is that going to be enough?
A big part of the iPhone’s appeal is the ‘must have’ nature of the brand and although HTC may be well known by mobile phone followers, its profile in the wider phone buying populous isn’t anywhere near as high.
Even as a G1 owner I can’t see this having much bragging rights.
Nice user interface… but the unit is a brick!
Pfft, who cares what it looks like? Empty headed iSheep need something to cling to as the G1 leaves their “pretty” little hunks of metal in the dust with it’s superior functionality and feature rich OS.
Roberto – I have an iPhone and G1 so I feel qualified to disagree with your reference to a ‘feature rich OS’.
It’s true both do some things the other cant and both are lacking some key features but when there are still legions of G1 users reporting message alerts not sounding I’m not sure it’s possible to claim any superiority. Sorry!
I definitely care what my phone looks like, I also care about how small it is and how well it fits in my pocket.
If HTC wan’t to compete with the iPhone it’s not enough to have a nice OS, they need to make inroads into the appeal and brand of the iPhone… this just doesn’t do that. Lets face it the iPhone has reached a point now where people want one not because of what it can or can’t do but because it’s a fashion statement – Baaa!