This evening at the blogger-launch of the new MiFi ‘mobile hotspot’ device, David Kerrigan - Head of Internet Services - confirmed that an Android device would be launched ‘in weeks’ as part of 3UK‘s Christmas line-up. They were reluctant, he said, to launch any handset until it was mature and stable enough for a mass-market. Android had now reached that stage.
The HTC Tattoo - Mass market pricing with the features of the Hero's attractive Sense UI. Coming to 3UK soon? We think so.
Although refusing to disclose the handset 3 intend to launch - and there have been plenty of announcements of-late including Motorola’s DEXT, LG’s Etna and INQ’s yet-unamed handset - these high profile names are either already spoken for or not yet mature enough to satisfy 3 we suspect. Our money would be on the HTC Tattoo - a mid-range, resistive touch handset announced in early September.
Sporting the same attractive Sense UI as the high-end Hero it sports a more mass-market price and styling. HTC’s announcement that an unnamed carrier would launch the device in the UK in early October ‘free with a £25-per-month contract running for 18 months‘ also looks like a good fit to us.
David also confirmed that the INQ Mini was close to launch following yesterday’s announcement that SingTel was releasing it this week - the unconfirmed comment from our friends at the UK Gadgeteer was that this would also launch at the beginning of October with the INQ Chat to follow pre-Christmas and we believe them because they know their stuff(!)