HTC Wizard May Be Coming to Cingular this Fall

While there has been a lot of talk about the HTC Wizard over the last few months, until now there was no evidence that this model would be released in the United States.

Now, however, the first sign has emerged that this highly-anticipated Pocket PC phone might be available in the U.S.

Unfortunately, the evidence for this isn't particularly reliable. Someone has sent to Engadget a link to what is supposed to be an internal Cingular Wireless document that states that two versions of this cellular-wireless handheld will debut on October 24.

More About the HTC Wizard

The HTC Wizard is one of many upcoming Pocket PC phones with a built-in keyboard. This will have a landscape orientation, and be located on a slider so it can be hidden behind the screen.

This device has been designed to mostly be used in landscape mode, although its QVGA screen supports portrait mode, too.

It will run Windows Mobile 5.0 on a 195 MHz Texas Instruments OMAP850 processor. It is not clear at this point how much memory it will have.

The HTC Wizard will have both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. In addition, it will support GSM/GPRS/EDGE wireless networks.

The only significant difference between the two versions of this device is that one will include a 1.3 megapixel camera, while the second one will not.

More About HTC

HTC (High Tech Computer) is a Taiwanese company that's usually called a ODM (Original Design Manufacturer). This means that it designs and manufactures handhelds and smartphones, then sells them to other companies who release them with their own brand names on them.

That's how one device, the HTC Wizard, can be released by numerous wireless service providers, each with a different name.

To add even more complexity to this, HTC will sometimes change the specifications of devices based on what each carrier asks for. This means that, for example, just because the standard version of the Wizard includes Wi-Fi, doesn't necessarily mean that the version released by Cingular will have it.