The HTC Diamond is truly a diamond in the haystack.  With its release early this summer, the HTC Diamond is looking for its one millionth sale which is anticipated to take place next week.  Of course, when the men in the pinstripe suits predicted that this phone would hit two million sales before 2009, people chuckled.  But these penguins might be right, and with the HTC Diamond set to release to Sprint and Verizon, I think this goal will be reached.

Specifications of the HTC Diamond

(credit to:  http://www.htc.com/www/product.aspx?id=46286)

This phone truly is a beauty.  With its stunning black design matched with high-end features, this phone may just be the diamond you are looking for.

Qualcomm® MSM7201A™ 528 MHz

Windows Mobile® 6.1 Professional

ROM: 256 MB

RAM: 192 MB DDR SDRAM

4 GB Internal storage

102 mm (L) X 51 mm (W) X 11.5 mm (T)

110 g (with battery)

2.8-inch TFT-LCD flat touch-sensitive screen with VGA resolution

HSDPA/WCDMA:

* Europe/Asia: 900/2100 MHz

* Up to 384 kbps up-link and 7.2 Mbps down-link speeds

Tri-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE:

* Europe/Asia: 900/1800/1900 MHz

(Band frequency and data speed are operator dependent.)

TouchFLO™ 3D

Touch-sensitive navigation control

GPS and A-GPS ready

Bluetooth® 2.0 with EDR

Wi-Fi® IEEE 802.11 b/g

3.2 megapixel color camera with auto focus

FM radio with RDS

900 mAh battery

Talk time:

* Up to 270 minutes for WCDMA

* Up to 330 minutes for GSM

Standby time:

* Up to 396 hours for WCDMA

* Up to 285 hours for GSM

Video call time: Up to 145 minutes for WCDMA

Diamond in a Haystack

The HTC Diamond is speculated to release for Sprint in early September and with Verizon shortly after (30 days).  It does have more competition coming its way with the Android, but HTC users will love this phone with its slim, stunning design and innovative features.  For the U.S., we will have to wait to get our hands on this device, but once that happens, it shall be a diamond of a reunion. 

The rumor mill is a-turning now that the release of the 3G iPhone is upon us … everyone is speculating what BlackBerry will create in order to compete with the everything-you-could-ever-want-and-more iPhone.  But BlackBerry might just have something up their sleeve with the talk of the BlackBerry AK (supposedly named AK for Apple Killer).

The Apple Killer

RIM offers great BlackBerry devices for their targeted market:  business and executive level personnel.  According to an article by Phone Magazine, RIM holds 40 percent of the market share for smart phones in the U.S. while the iPhone has 17 percent market share.  But we all have seen what Apple can do …

The idea for a touch screen BlackBerry is that it will have the touch screen for ease of selection but will also offer a QWERTY slide out keyboard.  The big catch is that RIM needs to develop an interface that will essentially transfer the “non-touch phone” into a touch interface … somewhat daunting, yes, but doable.  It has also been speculated that RIM will try to add more media-friendly features in order to engage in a friendly competition with Apple.

 Advice to RIM

This might seem like a small bit of advice (mainly because I’m one blogger shouting out to the corporate world), but I think that BlackBerry needs to continue to do what it has been doing.  Having options for smart phones is perfect because people like choices.  The media options for the iPhone are unprecedented because it is an iPod turned phone.  BlackBerry needs to understand that its well-developed and valued customer base has stuck with their BlackBerry devices because they like them and they work for them.  So my advice to RIM … do what you do best and don’t try to “beat” the iPhone … just keep reinventing the BlackBerry that many have grown to know and love.