HTC Hero to Have a Successor in 2010

Yawn
No, _huge_ yawn.

Is anyone else bored with any announcements of 528MHz ARM 11 processors? (A6 is the core used in the ARM 11 processor lines.) (For comparison A6 cores can perform about 740 MIPS, Million instructions per second, at speed range. A Cortex A8 processor performs 2000 MIPS at 1GHz)

Droid/iphone have set the standard of what can be achieved with the Cortex A8 processors, and any company really expecting to make a splash in the smart phone market will HAVE to surpass that bar.

Larger, brighter display, better physical keyboard, thinner, more on-board memory, faster memory, faster processor etc. before I'm going to become the least bit excited. When spending $2400 over a 2 year contract period just for service, I'm not going to get excited just because the phone only costs $99 on contract (hell, to be honest OFF contract).

Give us performance and usability if you want to distinguish yourself in this market, not just "another form factor"

Show us you you can keep up with the fastest, and make sure that YOU are also fast in bringing updated to your previous products. None of this 1.5 Android when the phone is released, when other carriers already have 1.6, and yet a 3rd carrier is releasing a 2.0 powered device less than a month after your initial launch.

Where has that "beautiful" Sense UI, and all the delays it apparently creates in bringing new updates to market gotten you? How were HTC's Android sales of *all* their 1.5 devices in comparison to the Droid last month?

I'm sure a lot of people actually bought the Droid Eris instead of the Moto Droid, but if HTC's hardware specs has been closer, and their operating system up to the challenge I wouldn't doubt HTC could have sold as many, or more units than the Droid sold.

Yawn

In reality, BIG yawn.

Is anyone else getting really bored with yet ANOTHER ARM 11 based phone, running at 528MHz?

The Motorola Droid, Palm Pre and iphone have set the standard for processing power. Who really wants 740 MIPS on their phone when the Cortex A8 delivers 2MIPS / MHz, meaning 2000MIPS on the iphone's 1Ghz clock speed?

I guess if they are going to set the price point for this phone to be FREE with 2 yr contract, maybe someone *might* get excited, but honestly, when I'm looking at $2400 in cellular charges over a 2 year contract, a cheap under-powered phone isn't going to get me to take notice.

Give me a larger, brighter screen than the Droid has (or the same screen), MORE than 2000 MIPS processing power (multi-core anyone), 512M or 1GB on-board RAM to RUN apps, plus an additional 2GB of ROM for OS and apps on-board so we don't have to mess with Apps2SD and the troubles it can cause.

You pretty much can rest assured that Apple is going to have to match the Droid's screen on their next release, they already have more processor speed available (although totally under-utilized because of no 3rd party multitasking.) I wouldn't doubt they are trying to bump that too, just as a "safety" margin for the marketing department.

What I want to see is a manufacturer who releases an innovative phone. One that is completely top-of-the-line, not one made to come in at a price-point that can compete with AT&T's huge subsidy on the iphone to hit some magical $199 price point. Cheap phone prices only affect the sale of products to people who don't take into consideration that the $99 or "free" phone is just a fraction of the costs associated with that device over the next couple years that they have to live with it. (Yes, unfortunately that is probably the *majority* of the American public who have been living with this system their whole "cellphone using" lives.)

I hope T-Mobile's attempt to un-bundle the phone from the service catches on and forces other US carriers to start competing on the real price of their service, not what they can hide in a "phone with contract" offer. Were T-Mobile (or even a GSM provider, so there was at least roaming available.) to have ANY coverage in this area, I would seriously consider switching just for this reason.