Orange helps itself to British exclusive on Touch HD

by Chris Ziegler, posted Oct 27th 2008 at 4:00PM

There are exclusives, and then there are exclusives -- and a Touch HD exclusive definitely falls into the latter category. HTC's undisputed WinMo heavyweight of the moment will be found only on Orange (well, as a locked device, anyway) in the UK through the end of the year for £79.99 (about $127) on a standard 18-month contract, launching delightfully soon in early November. Follow-on launches on Orange's French and Romanian networks are expected soon thereafter.

Filed under: Handsets, HTC, Orange, Windows Mobile, GSM, EDGE, HSDPA, UMTS

Tags: htc, orange, touch hd, TouchHd, uk, windows mobile, windows mobile 6.1, WindowsMobile, WindowsMobile6.1, winmo, wm6.1

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Highest Ranked

Nal @ Oct 27th 2008 4:09PM

127$??!?!

:(

Neutral

Eron @ Oct 27th 2008 5:07PM

That's what I said!

Neutral

Sunira @ Oct 27th 2008 4:40PM

Oh my god, why can't they sell it here for $127? :( :(
Of course now it makes it much cheaper to import the device..... :)

Highest Ranked

Blazeitup123 @ Oct 27th 2008 4:55PM

you going to import a contract as well?!?

Neutral

Davey Thr Techie @ Oct 27th 2008 5:03PM

Nah, seeing as thats the price on contract (which Europe's phone carriers are much more generous than US', they get $800 phones for free on contracts) You will still be paying an arm and a leg for that phone. I hate being in America right now...

Neutral

McLovin @ Oct 27th 2008 6:14PM

@Blazeitup123
You ever herd of unlocking? It's this really cool thing you can do to allow to use phones that are locked down by GSM carriers on your carrier of choice.

Seriously though, I know I wont be able to bask in the 3G speeds but I'll settle for edge, just to say hey look, my device is smaller than your iPhone, but it has a bigger display, with "higher definition"

I can see it now, it's going to be so cool.

RDP, Copy Past, Packet Sniffing, Texas Insturment Calculator emulators, Ahhh man WM rules!

Highly Ranked

Blazeitup123 @ Oct 27th 2008 6:49PM

@McLovin

i know about unlocking, i have had a touch diamond since may here in Canada. what i was referring to is how he will get it at a subsidized price. i thought it was quite clear what i meant, but i guess not.

Neutral

blitzkrieg999 @ Oct 27th 2008 4:59PM

A little part of me just died

Neutral

Ari @ Oct 27th 2008 5:01PM

18 months? why cant we get that?

Neutral

Tumbleweed @ Oct 27th 2008 5:02PM

I want this running Android on Sprint like, NOW.

Highest Ranked

badqat @ Oct 27th 2008 6:02PM

Ah...too bad Android isn't "good enough" for Sprint...

Highly Ranked

ILoveApple @ Oct 27th 2008 5:04PM

£40 a month is not the standard in the UK. Why the hell isn't the phone free even though it's on a £40 a month tariff? Do orange really expect to shift any in the UK with such stupidity?

People will look at the Samsung Tocco and say "It's got a 5 megapixel camera WITH FLASH and a touchscreen, why's this 'Touch HD' so expensive?"

How dare you try and move our mobile phone network back into the days of paying for phones, Orange. This isn't America. I hope the HD flops because of this.

Neutral

DaveIsOnIt! @ Oct 27th 2008 5:17PM

Wow...did you have to hit hard with the "this isnt America" :(

Neutral

telemachus @ Oct 27th 2008 6:03PM

pffft - just to clear up this issue -
I lived in the usa for 8 years and 8 years now in the UK and one thing is VERY CLEAR to see, you get a LOT more for your money in the USA.

Customer services (so called in the UK) actually expect you to pay 10p per minute to call them!!! I never once had anything but 800 numbers in the USA. Even phone companies expect you to call numbers where they collect income from you asking why there is a problem with your service. The brits are too polite to do anything about it, drives me insane.

In the usa I used to get 1 mile for 1$ in frequent flyer miles. Here you get 1 mile for 10pounds, nearly 20 as much money to get a free mile.
In the usa you join BMG and buy ONE cd and get 9 free. Here you buy 6 and get another 3 for free.

Chalk and cheese my friends, chalk and cheese.

Mark.
South African with bicontinental experience.

Neutral

mercurysunblast @ Oct 27th 2008 6:05PM

Whoa. I'd say you were being a spoiled brat but...considering most Americans are spoiled brats...I don't think I have the license to say a thing.

Neutral

shapey @ Oct 28th 2008 7:44AM

you won't need to pay for the handset as long as you don't get it through an orange shop.
i picked up my spvm3100 when that came out for free online through a reseller.

the worst part about this being exclusive to orange is that you'll be getting raped on data charges if you want to go online...unles they've changed their data packages.

Neutral

DaveIsOnIt! @ Oct 27th 2008 5:04PM

Why Sprint????? NNNNOOOOO LOL

Neutral

MikeWard1701 @ Oct 27th 2008 5:57PM

Dammit!

I wanted thins on T-Mobile! Orange, you are, officially, a cunt!

Neutral

Dan @ Oct 29th 2008 5:54AM

We can drop the c-bomb on here? Oh man, I can't wait for the next Apple event.....

Neutral

MikeWard1701 @ Nov 7th 2008 11:10PM

Dunno TBH. Not sure how far the word has spread into the US/International vanacular, or whether it carries the same gravity as it does here in the UK.

Though I'm no longer as annoyed as I was, follow link to find out why :P
http://www.expansys.com/p.aspx?i=175247

Neutral

Robin @ Oct 28th 2008 3:49AM

Don't worry folks its only exclusive to Orange until Jan. £80 + 40 per month for 18 months really is taking the piss though...
In fact its cheaper for me to stay on a sim free contract and buy the phone direct! I'm sure it will cost way below £500 after xmas as well so just need to be a bit patient

Neutral

GhostDoggy @ Oct 28th 2008 5:31AM

I thought I caught NewEgg offering the Touch HD unlocked for $499 a week or two ago.

Neutral

Norway @ Oct 29th 2008 7:10AM

I have ordered a HD here in Norway, and just got a notice yesterday that instead of delivering it to me 1th November, it won't be out until 31th November...yahoo