BINGO! We now make it that every single UK network is now carrying the HTC Desire, with Three UK announcing this very afternoon that it’s launching HTC’s phenomenal smartphone on its network from April 20.
It seems like Three has been forced into pushing out the Desire much sooner than planned, with a spokesman saying “we’ve decided to launch a generic, non-3 branded version of the phone early for those customers who just can’t wait” and pointing out that Three-branded apps will be made available separately to buyers in a month’s time.
And you don’t get free Spotify with this one. The Desire doesn’t need any additional incentivising to help it fly from distribution centres. Here’s a generic hardware shot.
The HTC Desire is not yet up on Three’s site, so if you’re after one best give them a ring. Here’s the full announcement, including prices for contracts and Three’s PAYG options. No idea what this “free Twitter” business is all about. Must be a special Three thing.
3 extends free Twitter and announces the HTC Desire on sale from 20th April
Customer enthusiasm prompts several hot off the wire announcements from 3 today.
Charlotte Blanchard, Director of Products and Services at 3, said; “Following the immense success of our free Twitter offering over the last few months we’ve decided to extend this for the foreseeable future. Our 3G network is purpose built for internet services like Twitter and we’re always looking for new ways to make these easy and affordable to use. ”
Tweeting messages and pictures will now be completely free to use on all 3 phones. Whether customers are using Twitter’s mobile site or taking advantage of a special integrated apps on phones like the HTC Hero, the INQ Mini 3G, INQ Chat 3G and the Sony Ericsson T715, Twitter is completely free of charge. Customers on Pay As You Go don’t ever need to top up their credit to use Twitter and for customers with internet add-ons Twitter won’t eat into their monthly internet allowance.
But that isn’t all as 3UK today announces the launch date of the HTC Desire to 3’s blog community. Sylvia Chind, Head of Branded Devices explains: “We’ve experienced unprecedented levels of enthusiasm for the HTC Desire from customer interaction on our blog and through our sales channels. This feedback has been a key driver in our decision making around the Desire so we’ve decided to launch a generic, non-3 branded version of the phone early for those customers who just can’t wait.
“We’re unbelievably excited to have this phone on our network, and we’ve been working really hard alongside HTC to launch as early as we possibly can.”
This flagship touch screen handset comes with a wealth of social networking and internet applications. Android phones are all about personalization and from launch customers will have their choice of over 20 thousand applications from the Android market. Customers who buy the generic version will be able to download 3’s unique products and services – like Skype, Windows Live Messenger and 3’s specially tailored Spotify premium app – when 3’s branded version of the phone becomes available in around one months time.
The HTC Desire will available on 3 from £35 a month with unlimited internet, texts and 750 anytime any network minutes on a 24month contract. Alternatively, it can be bought for £349 on Pay As You Go where, as with all 3’s phones, Skype, Windows Live Messenger and now Twitter are completely free to use.
Available from 20th April via www.three.co.uk and 3 Stores.
HTC’s 4.3″ dual-core Android model, powered by Qualcomm’s all-new S4 processor. It’s smaller than the enormous One X, but is it as nice as its bigger brother? (SPOILER: Yes it is).
HTC is very much B-A-C-K at the top of the Android world with this, its quad-core flagship for 2012. Great camera, huge 4.7″ display and Android 4.0 running beautifully well.
Sony returns with an all-new mobile design for 2012, pairing a dual-core processor with a 720p display. It’s a lovely phone, but is it enough to end our Samsung and HTC obsession?
LG’s updated Prada phone comes with an absolutely crazy black & white theme, but is it just for fashionable suit wearers who want to make themselves look a bit more interesting?
Markg
/ April 2, 2010I haven’t seen this anywhere else. Have i fallen for the worlds most boring april fools joke?
Gary C
/ April 2, 2010Ha, no!
That was a press release sent out late yesterday by Three. I guess most of the UK tech journos had already gone home for the day by the time it appeared. They’ll catch up with the news next Tuesday, I suppose…
Markg
/ April 2, 2010Thanks for the reply, i found the 3 blog (didn’t know it existed!) and it is up on there. Contract runs out on the 26th and I’ve been holding out for this (no matter how many times they tell me the hero is basically the same). Rang them today and the call centre didn’t know anything about it, guess i’ll just have to have patience as the blog says. 3 did offer me an iPhone to make me stay with them, is this widely known?
Gary C
/ April 3, 2010It does seem like it was a bit of a last minute decision by 3, after it saw how DESIRE BONKERS the world was going.
And no, I’ve never heard of 3 doing the iPhone. You want to get that off to some of the Apple blogs, they’d love it.
Phil
/ April 5, 2010I phoned 3 to cancel my contract on the 2nd April so that I could get an HTC Desire on a different network. The call centre was aware of its arrival and told me it would be available on 20th April. Decided to hang on though not terribly impressed at £35 per month on a 24 month contract. Considering buying a SIM free and getting 3s, £15 per month sim only deal with unlimited internet.
Gary C
/ April 5, 2010As nice as the Desire is, I’d be more tempted to go with Vodafone’s £20 Legend deal if I was looking right now. Can’t believe that price. It’s a BLOODBATH out there.
Nick
/ April 7, 2010I found that the best value option was to buy the phone unlocked and get the line rental separately.
I’ve ordered a sim-free Desire for £395 and got a T-mobile 30 contract (18 months, 600 mins, 500 txts, unlimited internet) for free with 18 month cashback vouchers from buymobilephones.net. It can be a pain to send the vouchers back at the right time, but I just set reminders on my phone so I don’t forget.
The best contract deal I found for the Desire was £20.83pm for 24 months on T-mobile which works out to £499.92, so buying the phone separately will save over £100 over the length of the contacts, and I’m free to get a new contract or a new phone 6 months earlier with the cashback deal.
Markg
/ April 10, 2010The phone’s up on the 3 site now, with more deals announced on the blog. It still hasn’t recieved as much coverage as the other networks though. They really want to the you in for 24 months, as there’s no internet with any of the 18 month contracts. I just can’t see me signing up for 2 years, it seems such a long time when phones are changing so quickly.
Lara
/ May 10, 2010Three keep telling me i can’t upgrade to the Desire and are trying to push me to get the Hero which i don’t want. I’m really quite p!ssed off with them, they’ve told me to look at the other phones and see if there is anything else i would upgrade to but since that part of the website is down how can i !!!!
After 6 years with Three i expected better customer service. I’ll be looking elsewhere !
Anonymous
/ June 2, 2010they just gave me the desire with 1100 mins or txts,unlimited landlines,unlimted 3 to 3 calls and unlimited internet for 25 pounds per month i have been with them for 5 years plu so i got a great deal