HTC’s Partial 2010 Handset Line-Up Is Leaked And It’s Android-Heavy

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HTC’s Partial 2010 Handset Line-Up Is Leaked And It’s Android-Heavy

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Quite a lot of fuss is circulating today about some grainy scanned images that reportedly detail HTC’s line-up for the first six months of 2010. In particular, people are observing that of the eight devices, five are running Google (NSDQ: GOOG) Android operating system and three are using Microsoft’s Windows Mobile.

The disparity is somewhat in contrast to what HTC America’s VP of sales and marketing Jason Mackenzie told mocoNews in October. He said ideally the company’s handset portfolio will be split about 50-50 between the two operating systems. “No one is more committed to 6.5 than HTC, and no one is more committed to Android,” he said. In fact, the Taiwanese handset-maker shipped four Android phones before anyone else had shipped one, and has announced at least five Windows Mobile phones that will ship by year-end.

That statement could still be true if the leaked documents are incorrect, or are focused on Europe, and are not international. The documents were scanned from a prototype brochure that was obtained during a presentation in Vienna on October 2009 and then posted in a developer forum.

The leaked devices fall into four categories: Design/Lifestyle; Social; Performance; and Productivity. The Windows Mobile 6.5 devices are named: Tera, Trophy and Photon and the Android devices are named Legend, Salsa, Bravo, Tide and Buzz. AndroidAndMe.com does a good job of highlighting the attributes of the Android devices and more info can be found at the developer forum here.

If these leaked screenshots do indeed provide a look at HTC’s line-up for the first six months of next year, and they are European-focused, it’s interesting that many of them are Android—especially given a report released today that concludes that consumers are showing little interest toward them in Western Europe, reports Reuters. Research firm IDC said market share of smartphones running Android rose to 5.4 percent from 4.2 percent in July-September in Western Europe. “Consumers steer clear of Google’s OS and sell-out is below everyone’s expectations. Consumers recognize the Google brand, but still do not understand what Android is,” IDC analyst Francisco Jeronimo said in a statement.

Perhaps more devices from HTC will help with awareness. Jeronimo said few devices were partly to blame for less-than-stellar results, but that could change with more handsets coming from LG (SEO: 066570), Samsung, Sony (NYSE: SNE) Ericsson (NSDQ: ERIC) and Motorola.

By Tricia Duryee