I'm over in the Commons for a mini-seminar on usability, and I got here a little early to pop in the wireless stores to check out the new phones. Sadly, the AT&T store had a huge line, so I couldn't see the one I really wanted to see up close, the Samsung Focus. The T-Mobile store, however, did not have a line, so I got a good look at the HTC HD7.
Wow... it's really shiny, and the screen is enormous. This is the first time I've seen production hardware (there have been various prototypes floating around since spring), and it's remarkable how fluid and smooth the UI is. The animations don't drop frame rate at all. It was really fantastic. I looked through the various mainstream apps, and thought they were all as good as, or better, than the iPhone equivalents. I really like the mapping better. The word suggestion as you type (I sent a text to myself) is infinitely better than what iPhone does.
It'll be interesting to see how it goes as things ramp up. Microsoft doesn't do hype very well, so outside of the tech circles, which seem to receive it pretty well, consumer recognition isn't very high yet. Scarcity problems seem to be occurring here and there, mostly outside of the US. The cross-promotion via Xbox Live is impressive. I think the product is seriously awesome, so we'll see if the marketing conveys that. The thing about the smart phone market is that it's still a very new and small (relative to phone sales overall) market, so as Android has shown us, there's plenty of room beyond the iPhone.
We can buy starting late next week, but I'm not sure when I'll take the plunge. Depends on how long I can wait. :) AT&T says I can get away free on March 3, four months before the end of my contract, otherwise I have the prorated early termination fee, which in my case is under a hundred bucks at this point. A lot of it has to do with how the Samsung "feels," because the other two AT&T models (one with silly slide-out speakers, the other with a slide-out keyboard), don't interest me. The Samsung has that great screen and is super light, and those are important to me.
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