HTC Shift "Hybrid"
Since the early 2000, we have seen personal computing paradigm slowly shifting from Desktop to Laptop and non-connected PDA and cellphone to “converged device” and finally recently the converged device (Mobile phone +PDA) is emerged to multimedia (e/g. iPhone) connected deivice. There have been some tentative efforts to create different form factors such the Palm Foleo, Microsoft UMPC, TabletPC, Web tablet, etc..But the rate of adoption has been somewhat seen as marginal.
Clearly, the most popular solution for consumer is still clearly 2 types of computing platforms that have distinctively different capabilities and different limitations (screen real-estate, power consumption, portability, instant-on, storage capacity, etc..)
- Laptop serving mostly for Web browsing, business applications, etc..
- Connected mobile device serving as cellphone, PDA, Multimedia purposes
HTC sees these requirements and decided to combine the 2 very different platforms on to a single piece of hardware called the “HTC Shift”. The “Hybrid” Shift runs on 2 OS on 2 different processors. it will run Windows Vista Business on an Intel Santa Rosa A110 processor with 1GB DDR2 RAM and a 40 GB hard drive. When running Windows Mobile 6 Professional, the Shift will use a 400 MHz processor from Qualcomm, and include 64 MB of RAM and 128 MB of ROM.
In a recent interview, Vishnu Vardhan, HTC’s Executive Director MEA, said the Shift will be released at the GITEX tradeshow, which kicks off September 8 in Dubai. This “hybrid” is expected to start at $1,500.
During my vacation, I had the chance to watch the great video review from Hugo Ortega (GottaBeMobile) and witnessed his great enthusiasm on this device. I am confident you will enjoy Hugo video review and find out if this type of “hybrid” device will be the right one for you.
I had The HTC Shift for a little over 60 hours and was able to play with many of its great features, which include Pocket PC, HSDPA, Vista Business, Tilt Touchscreen, QWERTY keyboard and more. It is an incredible device with many possibilities, this video will hopefully showcase some of that.
…I would have to say that this is one of the BEST Ultra Mobile PC I have ever had the pleasure of spending time with. If I were a manufacturer of a UMPC, or with a UMPC about to hit the market, then I would be shaking in my boots given what The HTC Shift is capable of. “I put my order down right away!”
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