HTC have unveiled their latest Android smartphone, the HTC Wildfire, and it’s an entry-level model that looks to replace the little-loved HTC Tattoo.  Packing a 3.2-inch QVGA capacitive touchscreen, European 3G/UMTS support, WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, a 5-megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash and HTC Sense, the Wildfire looks like a cross between a Desire and a Google Nexus One.

As for Sense, that has a couple of new features including displaying a contact’s latest Facebook status update along with their photo whenever you call them or they call you.  There’s also a new app called Application Sharing, which allows you to quickly let friends know about software you’re enjoying on your phone: after picking the title from a list, you can share it via SMS, email, Twitter or whatever other social networking tools you have on your phone.

HTC Wildfire hands-on:

According to HTC’s Eric Lin, the Wildfire “makes good on the promise of the Tattoo… [it's] much better executed.”  That not only makes for a better phone for the end-user, but one that’s cheaper for HTC to produce (meaning a cheaper MRSP) but that uses better quality components.  The Wildfire has the same 528MHz CPU as the HTC Hero, but with HTC having stripped out the 3D animations from Sense it keeps things moving reasonably quickly.  There’s also a microSD card slot under the battery cover and a 3.5mm headphone jack on the top edge.  The battery is a 1,300mAh pack, though HTC aren’t quoting estimated runtimes as yet.

The HTC Desire will be available in Q3 2010, in black, white, red and brown; no word on pricing at this stage, though HTC tell us they’re aiming for the entry-level “my first smartphone” market.

KEEP YOUR FRIENDS CLOSE WITH HTC WILDFIRETM

Share apps, updates and experiences with the latest social powerhouse from HTC

HTC Corporation, a global designer of smartphones, today introduced HTC Wildfire™, a new HTC Sense-based Android phone that integrates the most popular social networks to help bring your friends closer to you. HTC Wildfire closely follows the success of the acclaimed HTC Desire and makes the company’s signature HTC Sense experience accessible to a younger audience.

“Today’s social networks provide an essential forum for friendship with more than 400 million users* – many of whom are young adults – actively sharing their lives with their friends through Facebook,” said Florian Seiche, Vice President, HTC EMEA. “HTC Wildfire makes the HTC Sense experience available to young mobile users for the first time. It brings all your communications into one place, whether it’s through Facebook, Twitter, text messages, images or email, ensuring that you are never far away from the conversation and always close to your friends.”

HTC Wildfire helps you stay connected with those who are most important to you through HTC Sense, a user experience focused on putting people at the centre by making phones work in a more simple and natural way. You won’t miss out on the fun as HTC’s Friend Stream application seamlessly gathers and displays content from social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr into one organised stream of updates. HTC Wildfire enables you to stay up to date with your friends’ posts, comments, alerts and photos, wherever you are.

In addition, each contact viewed in HTC Wildfire’s address book includes a thread of recent communications with that person, including when you last spoke, recent text messages and emails, and social network updates. When your friend calls, HTC Caller ID displays their Facebook profile photo and latest update, as well as a reminder if their birthday is fast approaching.

Thanks to a new app sharing widget, HTC Wildfire enables you to recommend an application by email, text message or over social networks. Your friends will receive a link allowing them to find the application on the Android Market with a single click and download it to their phone.

Florian Seiche continued, “We understand that people need a better way to navigate their way through the tens of thousands of applications that are currently available on the Android Market. In fact, our own independent research found that consumers are not only hungry for the latest and most popular applications that their friends are using, they want an easier way to find and download them. For the first time ever, you can recommend the newest and coolest apps to a friend or group of friends with HTC Wildfire. With so many applications to choose from, there’s a world of content to discover and pass along to your friends.”

HTC’s latest advanced smartphone is great for viewing and sharing photos on Flickr and for surfing the internet thanks to its 3.2-inch capacitive touch screen. A five-megapixel camera with auto focus and LED flash allows you to capture special moments, while a 3.5mm audio jack and micro SD card slot mean you are never without your favourite songs.

Availability
The new HTC Wildfire will be broadly available to customers across major European and Asian markets from Q3 2010.

Notes
*Source: www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics. More information is available on request.

About HTC
HTC Corporation (HTC) is one of the fastest growing companies in the mobile phone industry. By putting people at the centre of everything it does, HTC creates innovative smartphones that better serve the lives and needs of individuals. The company is listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange under ticker 2498. For more information about HTC, please visit www.htc.com