14 DAY TRIAL // Taiwanese mobile phone maker HTC Corporation announced a week ago that it would launch a new handset powered by Microsoft's Windows Mobile 6.5 operating system, the HTC HD2, formerly known as Leo, a device that should soon prove one of the nicest WM phones on the market. According to HTC, the HD2 should land as soon as October in certain areas, yet it seems that users in the UK will only enjoy it starting with November 11.
Or at least this applies to the unlocked version of the mobile phone, which will be put on sale on that day on Expansys. The price tag for the unlocked version has been set at £549 (around $870 USD), which is quite a lot, one should agree. However, the high-end mobile phone is also expected to make it to the market via wireless carriers in the country, which means that we should also see it available for much lower prices, or even for free on the right plan.
Whether it will be October or November, it seems that European users will have the chance to try out the new Snapdragon-based handset much sooner than the North American fellows. HTC’s Peter Chou stated recently in an interview with SlashGear that the company's latest Windows Mobile 6.5-based device was to become available for purchase on the US market only in the first quarter of next year. The bright side, however, is that the handset is coming stateside too.
In related news, we learn that the device is to come to Spain via Vodafone. According to WMPoweruser, December is the month when HTC HD2 will reach Vodafone's airwaves in the country, at first exclusively available for its business customers. The phone will become available on Vodafone’s Real Mail plan priced at EUR 15 per month, or on the Windows Mobile E-mail service that goes for EUR 22 per month. It seems that Vodafone might also nab the device for distribution in the UK, yet no official details on this have emerged so far.