Do you remember the day you first saw the HTC Magician (iMate Jam / SPV M500), and how it changed your perception of the Pocket PC?

Top marks to HTC IMHO for opening up a whole new market for the Pocket PC... and it looks like they're about to do it again with another new Pocket PC form factor... feast your eyes on the HTC Blizzard concept!



Looking like a bizarre cross between a Smartphone and a Pocket PC with it's candybar layout, phone keypad and 2.4" inch touchscreen (the smallest seen yet on a Pocket PC), the Blizzard concept features:

- WINDOWS MOBILE 5
- TriBand GPRS / 3G with Video Calling (forward facing camera not shown on this image)
- 240x320 Screen
- 1.3 / 2MP Camera
- miniSD Expansion
- 128MB ROM
- 64MB RAM

The only thing that seems to be missing from the device is WiFi.

Although the picture above shows Windows Mobile 2003 SE, the device is made possible by the advancements in one handed operation found in Windows Mobile 5.

Although no operator has yet announced this device, it is anticipated that this device will hit market at the end of 2005, about the same time as HTC release 3G Smartphones onto the scene

P

Source: AreaMobile

oh god - when will they actually pick a standard and let the userbase grow :roll:

this throws UI for apps and games into the air once again

Hmm

I think "ooooh!", but one of the things I find with the M500 is that the screen is just a weeny bit too small to hit the keyboard/input selection button (and sometimes the Start menu items too!) with my podgy thumbs/fingers

2.4" is pretty small, another half an inch (0.4" in fact) smaller than the M500

Gonna need to get some good specs and pointier fingers if this is gonna work for me

'Is it only a matter of time before we see a non touchscreen PPC' is what I thought seeing this...

P

Looks interesting!

Could this mean that one day we will see the death of Smartphone? Having one platform would certainly have its advantages!

Rather the death of PPCs I hope

As smartphones was created as a smaller version of the pocket PC to look more like mobiles, then it would be kinda badword if they made Pockpet PCs to mobiles instead... ehm dah.. who the crap is making these names!? :x

wow! /me wants!

an actual pocketPC that can replace a phone and not look silly talking into! add wi-fi and its perfect!

As far as I understand it microsoft are pushing developers into developing a single program for both PPC and smartphone for WM2005 - and it just query's the device to find out specs like screen res and input methods, and adjusts accordingly...

Of course it makes more work I guess as theres 220x180 (original res - probably wont see much of this on WM2005) 320 X 240 (new hi-res phone/lo res ppc) 640 x 480 (hi-res PPC) and i think 240 X 240 too (square res)
So thats a lot of different resolutions to cater for... not to mention that input methods could be phone keyboard / full keyboard / touch screen or a combination of them. Not sure how difficult making apps that cater for this will be!

:shock:

Gorskar, you took the words right out of my mouth.

Finding it difficult to see this as a Pocket PC in the form of a Smartphone so much as a Smartphone with touch screen. I know, I know. I should just shut up with the semantics already!

What sort of processor I wonder? Higher than 400mhz? :roll: Not a big fan of the 200mhz smartphones, but I guess they're not made to run ppc type applications.

This is what I've been waiting for. Now if only it was clamshell, quadband, and wifi, it would be the perfect device.

Personally I'm the sort of person who'd love a 'smartphone with touchscreen' rather than a pocketpc with keys. I'm a buttonmapper user, really looking forward to wm5 (for my eten soon hopefully!!) and only use my stylus for writing notes and appointments (don't see the advantage of a stylus for nav).

Way to go HTC! So is this a different blizzard? I thought there was one existing that was just SP...

I've had a beer tonight so probably imagining this announcement.....but why touchscreen & keypad ?
Don't quite see the point of both.
Otherwise, what Gorskar said

Guess we'll have to wait to see. Could the new HTC Wizard be a sign that most smaller Pocket PC Phones will have 195mhz TI processors?

Stu, I've not had a drink (aside from a coffee) myself but spose I could still be hallucinating. Must admit for a nanosecond there I wondered if it was April already...

Too many choices these days. Too many choices. I really need to try 2005 on both PPC and Smartphone to see which I like better. Then I need to sit down in a dark quiet room and decide which OS I like better.

...then you need to tell me

You guys really don't see the advantage to touchscreen with keypad? :|

Basically it's what i've been waiting for. Here's an example of how it would make my life easier:

I want to make a calendar note. I use a hardware button to launch it, then I use the stylus and handwriting to write it in, select options etc. that are too difficult with buttons.

Then I want to sms a friend. I put away the stylus, and using t9 i sms them.

Now I want to play some music. Using hardware buttons again, i launch my mp3 player. I realise i meant to get a cd this week, so i use another handware button to launch my notes, and I jot down the note using transcriber and my stylus.

For things like the notes and calendar, i can write eaily and quickly, without using t9, and put in commas, capitals, puntuation, special characters. Then for navigation and sms, i can use the keypad and t9, which is faster for quick messages that don't require formatting.

Maybe that's just me...

Gotta agree with encece - too many choices... but wait, is that a bad thing? Tornado, Wizard, Galaxy, and now this... I need to find a shop with all these devices and show up first thing in the morning and play with them for 8 hours straight before I have even a decent chance of figuring out which one I might buy

I need size and weight info on this one - would be very nice. Actually I think I could live without WiFi if we just had a 3G company with decent coverage and some kind of flat rate possibility here...

Now this should be called an SPV C600

Hmm, since we can see the whole of the front of the phone in the picture, where exactly would the forward facing camera be hidden?

Perhaps it 'pops-up' from the top of the phone 'soft-eject' style. Now that would be cool! (Damn I should be a phone designer).

A quick fire 'snap-up' camera would be quicker, but due to the poor build standards of HTC devices (no dust seal on screen, keypads that don't last 12 months, etc.) I suspect that that type of camera would quickly just become a projectile weapon.

Personally I would rather see a smaller form factor on the existing jam with the same screen size. Also I would prefer it to have a few more programmable hardware buttons.

Having used a PPC for 6 months I really don't need the keyboard (including the qwerty on the wizard) but that is a personal thing.

Still it is an interesting concept and may well make PPCs more accessible to the masses. It is more in line with the size most people want. I find people like the look of the jam but all say it is a bit too big.

Regards

Im with you on this one. I have no use for a keypad anymore after using the jam for a while. If it where squeezed down in size just a little more (even if the screen was made a bit smaller) it would be almost perfect.

I've tried to make an image comparison between HTC Blizzard and HTC Tornado to try and get an idea of the size. I've simply used the information that the screen sizes are 2.4" and 2.2" respctively. The picture can be found here.



If my measurements are correct the size will be something like 112mm x 48.9mm (obviously can't say anything about the thickness).