HTC Hero available to pre-order in UK

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Retailers are gearing up for this month’s launch of the HTC Hero by opening up pre-orders for the new Android-powered handset.

While no official release date has been confirmed as yet, HTC has said the device will ship at some point this month for European users, while those in Asia will have to wait until later this summer.

Expansys is offering pre-order on the HTC Hero with a seven-day delivery turnaround, while Amazon is suggesting that the handset will be officially released on 15 July.

Unveiled just last week, the HTC Hero boasts a customised user interface, 3.2in touch screen display and beefed up multimedia and search functionality, in addition to A-GPS and widgets and applications for both business users and consumers.

The handset, which is the company’s third Android-based device – the first two being the T-Mobile G1 and HTC Magic - is the first in a new series of devices that will feature HTC’s new customisation focused Sense software.

“Consumer versus business? The line has really blurred today. Right now, I’m business but when I go home, I’m consumer. At the end, I’m just people,” HTC’s chief marketing officer John Wang told IT PRO during an interview after last week’s unveiling of the Hero.

“This does not mean there is no differentiation. People do different things and people like different things... The HTC Hero is built based on that philosophy,” he said.

The HTC Hero comes with a 3.5mm headphone socket – something that will please users who’ve lamented the need for an adaptor historically. Wang was also tackled by another journalist about the lack of 3.5mm headphone jacks in its product line up.

“If you’ve got 100 people in a room all eating dinner, not all of them are going to finish at the same time,” he said in response to suggestions that HTC is somewhat behind its competitors in this respect.

Of the new Sense interface, Wang said: “I hang a painting on the wall, I don’t want an icon of a picture on the wall.”

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