Be Smart

Last Friday we wrote about HTC's Shift suffering what seemed to be another premature launch announcement - The Boy Genius even decided the much-anticipated UMPC was no longer for him - and decided to put the problem to HTC themselves and find out whether the Shift is really shifting or not.  According to our source at HTC, boxed production models have hit the carrier's warehouses having been shipped several weeks ago: as he put it, both HTC and the customers are now at the mercy of the networks and when they choose to make the Shift available.

Telefonica, who are exclusively handling the device in Spain, have supposedly just started advertising the Shift and it's available via their Business Sales department.  That means it's not in the stores, nor even on their regular website, but if you call customer services or go into stores and ask specifically for the UMPC they'll ship you one direct.

Orange, in the UK, however, do not appear to be selling the Shift as yet, and HTC are looking into the situation there.

The reliance on business channels does raise a concern about exactly who will splash out the not-inconsiderable price for the HTC Shift without necessarily seeing the device "in the flesh".  Commentor James Plaistere said on our previous post:

"The one advantage of it being on sale in Orange stores next month (year/millenium!) is that we can now see this device and play with it, potentially" James Plaistere

Yet if Orange follows Telefonica's lead there'll be no demo units in bricks'n'mortar stores, leaving customers with the decision to buy the ultraportable sight-unseen.  Personally I wouldn't invest in anything like this without trying the keyboard, seeing how responsive the touchscreen is, and generally putting it through its paces with regard to speed, something the Shift has been flagged up on, as the hardware specs are now looking decidedly average.