Vodafone on Thursday announced that the company will no longer supply the long-awaited HTC HD2 device after it has fulfilled current back orders for the device, quoting:
“We won’t be re-stocking the HTC HD2 for general consumer sales once our current devices sell out. With subsequent deliveries of stock we’ve prioritised the fulfilment of back orders for the device. Given the wide and expanding range of smartphones available to Vodafone customers, including the iPhone in early 2010, we’re confident that we continue to offer the broadest range of devices to our customers.“
Launched officially in the second week of November, the HD2 sports a 4.3” multi-touch screen and a 1GHz Snapdragon processor. It is also HTC’s first Windows Mobile phone to use the HTC Sense interface, which was first seen on the HTC Hero. Experts predicted the HD2 was going to be a huge success and level the playing field between Apple, Android and Windows Mobile.
According to a Vodafone spokesperson, the company’s telephone and Internet sales teams have been “overwhelmed with customers eager to get their hands on the [HD2] since launch”, which poses questions about why they’d want to pull such a high profile device from their portfolio just weeks after launch.
Perhaps a combination of huge demand coinciding with the launch of the iPhone 3G on the Vodafone network in January posed concerns that this handset would draw too much attention away from Apple’s flagship device?
Although there may be other factors influencing Vodafone’s decision, I do wonder how many iPhones Vodafone agreed to sell to make this decision?
Competition killing backhanders from Apple, “just business” or is Windows Mobile still not quite there? You decide!
The handset is currently available through other UK carriers including T-Mobile and O2.