If you are a gadget junkie you should have been in Barcelona, Spain this week at the 3GSM Convention. RIM rolled out its new Blackberry 8800 there and their European partner of sorts, HTC , rolled out their new smartphone. The HTC S710 smartphone (previously known as the Vox), comes with a nifty little slide out Qwerty keyboard. It's HTC's first phone to be based on Windows Mobile 6, although its S620 is upgradeable from Windows Mobile 5.0.

European provider Orange will be bringing out the S710 in Europe in the next couple of months, although there is no date for a UK rollout. Yves Maitre, Orange's vice president of devices, called the S710 the "Ferrari of the mobile phone". The device comes with stereo Bluetooth, 2MP camera, Wi-Fi and Windows Mobile 6's handy integration of Hotmail and Live Messenger. Might be more of a Nissan 350Z.

Research In Motion announced this week at the 3GSM World Congress plans to offer BlackBerry Connect software on five new Microsoft Windows Mobile-based devices from HTC to carriers around the world, including the HTC S710 launched at the 3GSM World Congress 2007 in Barcelona, Spain.

BlackBerry Connect on HTC handsets supports push-based wireless email access, wireless email reconciliation and attachment viewing in conjunction with both BlackBerry Enterprise Server and BlackBerry Internet Service.

Additional features supported through BlackBerry Enterprise Server and BlackBerry Connect v4.0 include:
Enhanced attachment handling capabilities, enabling users to view images, footnotes and tracked changes;
Remote look-up of corporate email address directory; Triple DES or AES wireless encryption; Internet and corporate intranet access via the BlackBerry Mobile Data System; Wireless device provisioning to allow devices to be activated wirelessly;
Remote control of email settings to allow users to wirelessly configure out-of-office replies, email filters, and auto-signatures directly from their device; and
Wireless IT policy enforcement and commands.

The HTC S710 is a versatile, compact handset that looks like a phone, but includes a concealed semi auto-sliding keyboard to allow for email and data input. Users are able to view their email, Word and Excel documents on the 2.4 inch screen with landscape view option. The HTC 710 operates on GPRS/EDGE networks and supports Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.0.

Florian Seiche, Vice President HTC Europe, commented: “BlackBerry Connect is a great example of our continual drive to add more value for our customers. We have experienced strong demand for BlackBerry Connect from some of our key operator clients and therefore consider it important that our devices support the popular BlackBerry service.”

“HTC is the world’s leading provider of Windows Mobile-based devices and a strategic partner for RIM. We’re pleased to be extending our relationship to bring BlackBerry Connect to a range of new HTC devices this year,” said Mark Guibert, Vice President, Corporate Marketing at Research In Motion. “Together, HTC devices and BlackBerry Connect provide an innovative and powerful solution that meets the distinct needs of both mobile users and IT departments.”

For corporate customers, BlackBerry Enterprise Server software tightly integrates with Microsoft Exchange, IBM Lotus Domino and Novell GroupWise and works with existing enterprise systems to enable secure, push-based wireless access to email and other corporate data.

For individuals and smaller businesses, BlackBerry Internet Service allows users to access multiple supported email accounts (including most popular ISP email accounts) from a single device.

About HTC

Founded in 1997, High Tech Computer Corp. (HTC) designs, manufactures and markets innovative, feature rich smartphone and PDA phone devices.
Since its establishment, HTC has developed strong R&D capabilities, pioneered many new designs and product innovations, and launched state-of-the-art PDA Phones and Smartphones for mobile operators and distributors in Europe, the US, and Asia. These machines are available as HTC devices and as products individually customized for operator and device partners.
HTC is one of the fastest growing companies in the mobile device market. The company is listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange under ticker 2498. For more information about HTC, please visit www.htc.com