14 DAY TRIAL // Taiwan-based mobile phone maker HTC Corporation is among those companies which would come to the market during the next year with a device capable of offering LTE (Long Term Evolution) connectivity.
Since HTC already has on the market mobile phones that provide users with WiMAX capabilities, or with HSPA+ connectivity, it was only a matter of time before the company confirmed plans to release LTE-capable handsets as well.
And confirmation on this has just arose, from none other than Peter Chou, CEO of HTC, who spent some time with Mobile World Live, as a recent post on Android Guys reads.
According to him, we should expect for the said LTE mobile phone to arrive on shelves sometime in mid-2011. The interview with him is available here, though registration is required.
While this might be a little later than what enthusiasts were expecting for, the announcement puts the device's release window in line with what Verizon said previously in regard to the availability of the first LTE-capable smartphones on its network.
Nothing was confirmed officially on the matter, but there are great chances that HTC and Verizon would plan on working together on the release of the said device.
At the same time, there is also the possibility that the said device would run under Google's Android operating system, already highly popular on Verizon's network and elsewhere.
The two 4G smartphones in the United States, the HTC EVO 4G and Samsung Epic 4G, are running under Android too.
However, since HTC is also the largest provider of handsets running under Microsoft's mobile operating system, there are great chances that the device in question would be based on the new Windows Phone 7 platform.
In addition to confirming plans to release the LTE device, HTC's CEO unveiled plans on the upcoming release of handsets that would pack Near Field Communications, it seems.
Basically, this would point at the availability of Android 2.3-based smartphones, as NFC is one of the new features that the latest version of Google's mobile operating system brought to the mobile space.
With CES and MWC right around the corner, it should not come as a surprise if more info on the matter would emerge soon.