HTC's First Smartphone with LTE Not Coming Until the Second Half of 2011

HTC's CEO says his company intends to be a major producer of smartphones using the high-speed cellular-wireless technology LTE, but the first HTC model using this networking standard won't be released until the second half of next year.

Verizon debuted its LTE service a few weeks ago, and AT&T is scheduled to start offering service using this same standard next summer. This new standard is significantly faster than the 3G networks offered by these carriers.

Verizon is expected to introduce its first 4G phone this winter, but it won't be made by HTC. The company's CEO, Peter Chou, says that HTC won't have an LTE-based model until summer at the earliest.

This leaves the market open to the competition, and unconfirmed reports say that Verizon is going to introduce the LTE-based Motorola Olympus in the first quarter of 2011.

Information leaking out of this carrier also indicates that its version of the iPhone 4 is going to support LTE when it debuts in the next month or so.

Bad News for Some
There have been unconfirmed reports for some time that Verizon is getting ready to launch the HTC Droid Incredible HD, a high-end Android OS smartphone that was rumored to have a large high-resolution display and 4G support.  Chou's comments make it clear that at least part of the information about this model is incorrect.

While it's quite possible the other details of this device that have leaked out are correct, it certainly won't offer LTE support.

Source