@ MWC: HTC expands portfolio with five new phones and its first tablet

BARCELONA, Spain – HTC Corp. used the global stage here at Mobile World Congress to announce three updated versions of existing smart phones, two new devices targeting the social media savvy and its first tablet.
The HTC Flyer, which marks the company’s first foray into the tablet space, is held together by a single aluminum body powered by a 1.5 GHz processor. With the device, HTC also plans to introduce a series of new content features and services.
HTC’s Watch is a new video download service that has a catalog of hundreds of high-definition movies from major studios. In partnership with OnLive Inc. the company also claims it will deliver the first cloud-based mobile gaming service on a tablet.
HTC’s Scribe Technology is aiming to bring the traditional act of writing to a tablet, making note-taking and onscreen writing more intuitive.
HTC has also tweaked it’s Sense overlay for the Android operating system specifically for tablet devices with a new widget carousel.
The HTC Flyer will be available globally next quarter.
HTC unveiled three new smart phones – Desire S, Wildfire S and Incredible S – that represent the next version of some of the company’s existing devices in the market today.
HTC’s Desire S is constructed out of a single block of aluminum and sports Qualcomm Inc.’s 1 GHz Snapdragon processor. The 3.7-inch touch screen device also features front- and rear-facing cameras.
The Wildfire S is one the company’s smallest phones yet with a 3.2-inch touch screen and a 5-megapixel camera.
The Incredible S sports a contoured shape with a 4-inch Super LCD touch screen, stereo surround sound and an 8-megapixel camera. The company said all three smart phones will ship in European and Asian markets next year, but had no plans as of yet to introduce the upgraded phones in the United States.
HTC’s ChaCha and Salsa feature a dedicated button for Facebook and integrate some of the site’s functions directly into the phones’ user experience. The devices will alert users whenever an opportunity arises to update their status, upload a photo, share a link and more with a quick click on the Facebook button.
Both phones will ship with Google Inc.’s Android 2.3 and the latest version of HTC Sense.
The ChaCha has a tilt design form factor with a physical QWERTY keyboard, a 5-megapixel camera and a 2.6-inch touch screen.
The Salsa sports a 3.4-inch touch screen and a 5-megapixel camera. The pair of socially-driven devices will be available in most European and Asian markets next quarter and AT&T Mobility has the exclusive on the devices in the United States.
Pricing details were not announced for any of HTC’s latest hardware.