HTC enters tablet market with the Flyer


15 Feb 2011

HTC has unveiled its tablet offering – the HTC Flyer – with OnLive cloud gaming, HTC Sense for tablets and HTC Scribe technology for writing.

The tablet was revealed at the Mobile World Congress and, by the look of much of the technology, it seems many of the investments HTC made earlier this month are surfacing in the technology already.

The Flyer, according to HTC, weighs “as little as a paperback book,” includes a 7-inch display and has a 1.5GHz single core CPU. It will have a 3D home screen and offers support for Flash 10 and HTML5.

According to Engadget, it will apparently run on the upcoming Android 2.4 as opposed to Android 3.0. However, the HTC Sense UI from its smartphones has been reimagined for tablet devices. Apparently, HTC believes that upgrading Sense for tablets was more important than the underlying operating system and that they did not have time to customise Android 3.0 to the full Sense experience.

The Flyer will have HTC Scribe technology, which offers a stylus and integrated digital ink to make writing notes, signing contracts, drawing or writing on a web page a natural experience.

It includes Timemark, which allows users to capture audio, as well as write notes. These notes can be integrated with the calendar. The tablet has built-in synchronisation with the Evernote app.

The tablet will also have HTC Watch, a new video download service. It offers on-demand progressive downloading of HD movies from major studios.

It will also have OnLive cloud gaming, a service which allows players to access games without requiring discs, downloads or updates.

The OnLive service will let customers either play them on the tablet or play them on a TV set via wireless connectivity. Games on offer include Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, NBA 2K11 and Lego Harry Potter.

The HTC Flyer will be available worldwide during the second quarter of 2011.