HTC Touch DIAMOND Review – Experience A New Dimension

Author’s Note: (I have recently written this product review for HTC Touch Diamond for one of a leading magazine & wanted to share it with my blog visitors)

The Prosumer’s smart phone market is a notoriously difficult market to crack, with subsequent successful devices proving few and far between. If any Windows Mobile device has ever eagerly awaited it has been the Touch Diamond from HTC. Small, sleek and with a version of HTC’s fancy TouchFLO interface that has expected to knock the socks off its predecessor, the arrival of the HTC Touch Diamond is a bit of a ‘baited breath’ moment.

The HTC Touch Diamond is a 3G handset, made with a touchscreen, 4GB of storage for music and photos and more. It’s an elegant follow-up to the HTC Touch and should give the 3G iPhone a run for its money, The best part of the HTC Touch Diamond by far is its beautiful craftsmanship, but the touch screen and functionality come in a close second and third.

HTC Touch Diamond – Designer Feel

The HTC Touch Diamond looks fabulous. It’s relatively small and lightweight for a smartphone, at just 11mm thick and weighing in at only 110g. But don’t let these stats deceive you, as the Diamond packs an awful lot into its svelte body. The 2.8-inch screen dominates the front of the handset, with a panel featuring four hard keys and a command key found just underneath. The panel feels a little loose which is a shame because apart from that the Diamond is a work of art. The back of the handset features a plastic glossy prism-like design that gives it a real designer look, although both this and the screen is a real magnet for grubby paw prints.

The icons are both vivid and expertly animated, and the clock on the home screen can be changed from digital to a retro-style clock that flips over as the minutes pass.

HTC Touch Diamond – TouchFLO 3D

Following the success of HTC’s patented TouchFLO technology, the Diamond is the first to sport the updated TouchFLO 3D user interface. Despite operating on Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, it looks similar to the user interface found on the iPhone, with the ability to flip through your contacts or music collection with each name or album cover coming towards you from the screen.

The 3D view of the HTC Touch Diamond’s software is excellent. You can look through your contact list by picture with the sweep of a finger if you add pictures to people in your contact list, or take their picture with the phone’s 3.2Mp auto-focus camera. For music listeners, the album covers show up so you can flip through them in the same way you look through the contact list. Of course, you can type in names as well by hand or stylus.

The HTC Touch Diamond is packed with features and not forgetting its smartphone roots features HSDPA, Wi-Fi and HSUPA, meaning it’s equally quick in uploading content as it is to download. We were particularly impressed with the Wi-Fi connectivity both in its speed and its ability to recognize potential servers. Using our office Wi-Fi network we found surfing the net proved just as fast as our own desktop.

HTC Touch Diamond – Opera Mobile

HTC recently announced that all of its Diamonds would come with Opera 9.5, a purpose-built mobile internet browser, embedded on the device. Internet Explorer is also there, but Opera is so good that Internet Explorer is likely to remain redundant. The beauty of Opera is that it automatically resizes web content so that it fits neatly on the screen. Simply tap the screen twice on the area of the page that you want to read and you will zoom in. The Diamond is also fitted with accelerometers allowing you to view web pages (as well as photos) in portrait or landscape view.

A quick link to YouTube can also be found in the list of programs. The quality of video when being streamed is some of the best we’ve seen, though there is an ever so slight sound delay.

HTC Touch Diamond – Rain or Shine

The weather application was a particular favourite of ours. Choose from a list of locations – you can be as specific as particular boroughs of London – and be greeted by a large weather symbol indicating whether there is sun, rain or snow, as well as the current temperature. It’s updated automatically and regularly, and could prove particularly useful to the jet-setting businessman, for example.

The Diamond also features A-GPS, although the mapping software will need to be bought in addition to the device; however the complete package does come with the excellent CoPilot Live included. However, Google Maps is embedded in the device, and the accuracy of the results was excellent, pinpointing us to the exact location.

HTC Touch Diamond – Multitasking

While there’s no expandable memory option, the Diamond does pack 4GB of internal memory, which is a generous offering. What’s more unlike some other phones is that the Diamond allows you to use multiple programs at any one time, by minimizing them as you would on a PC. For example, you could be surfing the web when you want to check your calendar. Simply bring up your diary, check your appointment and then return to where you were on the web.

HTC Touch Diamond – The verdict

We applaud the HTC Touch Diamond for its ambition and promise. With the Sony Ericsson Xperia and Samsung Omni i900 coming soon, offering their own customizations of Windows Mobile 6.1’s UI and widescreen displays, the competition will be getting a little fierce. The TouchFLO 3D is definitely fun and interesting, though it doesn’t always translate into a more efficient and expedient UI. We wish you didn’t have to read the manual to learn the in’s and out’s of finger navigation (isn’t the point of touch phones that they should operate nearly transparently), though first time WinMo users will likely find the visual presentation easier to figure out than standard WinMo. However, in terms of price and features the Diamond is a high-end power user’s phone, and those generally attract veteran users who may grow frustrated with the visuals when wanting to accomplish tasks quickly.
Certainly, the feature set is incredible– VGA display, GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth, 4 gigs of storage and a good autofocus camera. And it’s a marvel that HTC fit all this in such a slim, small and light device. Based on the hardware, the Diamond is indeed a gem.

Pakistan’s Smart Phone Market – Does Windows Mobile hold True Potential?

The Days gone by when PDA’s (read Win Mo Mobile phones) were only meant for geeks & Techies, since than PDA’s have come to an age of unattractive looking communication devices to a fashion/ professional accessory .As the data consumption by local consumer is increasing (following the footsteps of their global counterparts) along with all kind of new data services being introduced by Telco’s. This scenario has now led to a sudden surge in demand for handheld devices to fulfill customer’s both (professional & style) requirement in a single mobile device.

Currently the local smart phone market entails 3 major players (OS/ platform plus devices). The Nokia smart phones (primarily its e-series with Symbian OS), RIM with its BlackBerry devices/ services & the Microsoft Windows Mobile enable devices (aka PDA’s) approx 80% of which manufactured by High Tech Corporation – HTC).

Why Windows Mobile?

For Individual Consumers:

1. Great potential in business phone category with thousands of professionals are looking for the solution of their professional requirements,

2. Growing acceptance of Windows mobile as the foremost OS in business category,

3. Plenty of choices (in the shape of different device manufactures) available in Windows Mobile, with different design choices (from a sleek stylish looking device to a professional looking full auto sliding keyboard built device)

4. A sudden surge in young executives segment in Pakistan, who want to fulfill both of their professional & style requirement through a single mobile device.

5. Win MO offers loads of customization for each individual needs, cyber world is abundant with apps from Games to Touch navigation (finger swapping navigation) soft wares.

For Corporate:

1. Growing trust on Windows Mobile by IT/IS departments of leading organizations.

2. Windows Mobile offers High security & control for organizations unmatched by other hand-held devices,

3. Data facilities from cellular operators are improving, which is now encouraging corporate organizations to modernize their business processes through utilizing these facilities.

4. Advance level of connectivity now required by companies from their employees,

5. Growing trend of Office automation through Hand held devices,

6. MNC’s are being instructed by their foreign offices to switch onto Windows Mobile.

How to Promote Windows Mobile?

1. Awareness: (through targeted, coherent & interactive communication)

2. Reach: (through communication & sales channel)

3. Experience: (connect Windows Mobile attributes with consumers hence enhancing brand image & build customer relationship)

4. Value Proposition: (provide the rationale (tangible and intangible benefits) for making consumers choose Win Mo products over competition)

Communication Activities to Focus:

1. ATL: ATL will help in awareness & hype of Win Mo devices. In addition, these media also give strength to Windows Mobile brand (esp. TV & Print in Pakistan)

2. OOH: (Billboards only)

3. BTL: BTL needs to be more aggressive through road shows & high-end in-store branding,

4. Trade Marketing: Sales promotion, premiums, Win Mo device demonstration at select potential Malls & outlets,

5. Corporate Marketing: Training workshop, Corporate giveaways, PR events, Win Mo enable units for corporate demonstration.

Conclusion:

1. Windows Mobile has the required product portfolio & potential to make it big in Pakistan,

2. If Windows Mobile or Win Mo devices adopt targeted & focused approach towards 2 most vital segments than the objective of higher number of Win Mo user in Pakistan can easily be achieved,

3. The value of each segment (Individuals & Corporate) is very important in taking Windows Mobile devices towards leadership position in high-end category,

The upcoming products including HTC Diamond, Samsung Omnia, HTC Touch Pro & Sony Ericsson Xperia X-1have the potential to achieve greater success for Windows mobile in Pakistan.

An Insight into the Mind of Mobile Phone users – The battle of Needs & Aspirations!

In continuation to my previous post on Pakistan’s handset industry; this article will shed further light on the same industry but highlighting the opposite side of the spectrum .i.e. the mobile phone users. The mindset of our local mobile phone user is very unique & complex. Influences of socio-economic & demographic factors, peer pressures & life style etc are the main driving force through which the consumer ends up owning a particular model for his/her communication needs.

“A professional looking guy is standing nearby you, he is pretty calm & collected but needlessly try to show of his latest PDA, few seconds forward than he pulls out his phone stylus & tap here & there on the screen than put the phone in his pocket while giving a good gaze to all the near by guys boasting a smirking proudly smile“.

I bet many of you have observed incidents like these but have you ever wondered why on earth a decent looking guy in professional attire can ever do this kind of antics.

To further explore this mindset, let’s look closely, the phenomenal growth in mobile penetration have created a very unique socio cultural psyche. just imagine from a 12 year old kiddy to a 60 year old man are all playing with the small communication device known as mobile phone. A rough estimate suggests that in Pakistan the usage span of a new cell phone is mere 3 months (means majority of local users upgrade their cell phone within 3 months time).

Confused, let me throw a simple question. What exactly do you want from your mobile? The 3 top of the mind features which comes instantly should be the core reason for you to owning your current handset; if that isn’t the case than you must have lost the battle to the aspirations which are hiding somewhere underneath your mind.

Sound interesting right, precisely your honest answer is the basic premise of this article. Pondering further on this same concept, I have summed up the Pakistan’s mobile user into 2 main categories (2 basic types of users).

1. Those who are driven by their needs (read 3 core phone functionalities)

2. Those who are driven by their aspirations (Users who can easily suffice their communication requirement through a say Rs. 10k mobile phone but instead they choose to carry a cell phones worth Rs. 40K or more)

In every mobile phone user’s mind there is a battle going around, a battle between their needs & aspirations. Some own phones to suffice their communication needs while some own phones to meet their aspirational urges.

 

Now look at the mobile phone user preference chart while making actual decision, the data is a study & I have used extrapolation for analysis purposes as it enable us to understand the psyche of local consumer. Also take a look at the chart depicting local consumer purchasing pattern.

 

I personally have come across so many professionals/ executives who take their hands on any new business phone which hits the market, to few of them I even asked the question why you are carrying a blackberry/ PDA or a latest Nokia E-series phone…. the only answer I got in reply was we need to check our emails 24/7 & that’s about it (surprisingly no words about PIM, one of the major feature of any business phone since majority of them doesn’t exactly know what this Personal Information Management really stand for). I have even tried to convince majority of them that there are cell phones which can meet your exact requirement in half of the price you want to spend but my efforts always go in vain.

The main reason lies in the consumer mindset (the aspirational value attached to carrying a business phone) since the consumer tend to believe that how he/she will look professional (read top executives) if they are not carrying a BlackBerry or a PDA phone.

And this is not just a local phenomenon, even mobile users of developed countries tend to be manipulated by their desires & aspiration rather looking to their actual communication needs. Hence this battle between needs & aspiration will continue…. how long, i am not too sure…