Verizon to snag 3 2 Android handsets by years end?

  • September 17, 2009 7:09 am

android-robot

You’re speculation/rumor light should be going full bore right now as what is about to be presented to you is pretty lofty though not so much so that it is completely unbelievable. Starting off, the rumor is based off of a DigiTimes article (please bare with me…give it a chance) that Verizon will be launching both the HTC Desire and HTC Passion (Google phone) in the 4th quarter, bringing the end of year Android count to 3. The reason for the speculation and thought provoking conversation comes from a quote by DigiTimes that doesn’t quite add up.

Verizon is expected to cooperate with HTC to launch its first Android-powered smartphone, the HTC Desire, in the fourth quarter, Commercial Times said, noting that the pair will also launch a mobile TV handset, the Whitestone, in the fourth quarter.
“HTC is also likely to cooperate with Google again to roll out the next-generation Google phone, the Passion, in the fourth quarter, the paper added.”

The big problem however stems from the fact that the HTC Whitestone, the phone that DigitTimes is claiming to be the release name of the HTC Passion coming to market packing Android and all, has been spied on multiple occasions sporting WinMo 6.1 garb both software based and physical. Case in point: this picture and spec list from from HTC Pedia gives strong credibility to the fact that these two names/phones are getting mixed up by DigiTimes.

Of course, then the question of what is the HTC Passion gets bantered about in your little cranium. You’re guess is as good as mine. Is DigiTimes correct with their assumptions above? (*Update: No*) Or, as PhanDroid is highlighting, the HTC Passion and HTC Whitestone are two completely different phones with the Whitestone bringing another WinMo handset to Verizon and the Passion…well…start speculating.

Further adding fuel to the fire, the last part of the quote listed above which references Verizon as the first carrier for the HTC/Android device and also remembering the fact that the Motorola Sholes which was expected to have been announced at Mobilize ’09 (and wasn’t) leads one to also speculate that Verizon instead went with HTC as their “first” experience with Android. My my. Such is a web of speculation, rumors, and unknowns. Can you make sense of any of it?

Going on the tiny twig of a limb barely hanging from the tree, if the above speculations from DigiTimes materialize, we could very well see 3 Android handsets charging into Verizon before 2009 comes to a close. Excited? Pessimistic? Nothing like waiting until the last minute huh? What’s your take on all of this unknown identity crisis?

*Update: It appears the Times was wrong again as today, 9/18/09 BGR has shed light on the Whitestone’s early October release as a WinMo 6.5 smartphone as originally thought. The Android ’09 count on Verizon just dropped to 2.

Source: PhanDroid, DigiTimes, Image Source


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