Yesterday, 247 Windows Phone showed off a Windows Phone 7 (WP7) device that they claim to be the HTC ‘Schubert’. This phone is certainly a departure from what we’ve seen from HTC in recent months – featuring a unibody design, and curved rubber or plastic pieces along the top, bottom and left-hand-side of the phone"s rear. Take a look at the below video to see for yourself (the video goes blank after the 1:12 mark due to an uploading error):
It’s an interesting design – and one has to wonder why HTC took this approach. In an industry that seems to be aiming towards minimalism and for a phone that runs an OS built on the same design principles, this phone’s design is confusing. It’s minimalistic on the front and elaborately decorated on the rear.
The word from CENS.com (via WMPoweruser.com) is that AT&T (US) and Orange (UK) are both ordering a bunch of ‘Schubert’s’ from HTC, to be ready for the Q4 launch of WP7. The only question left to ask now is “how much will it cost?"
Oh, and in case anyone missed the tweet – WMPoweruser.com didn"t – the KIN team has now officially jumped over to the WP7 team, or at least stopped tweeting about the KIN.