AT&T’s iPhone reprise: If iPhone is fun, HTC Tilt means business

The term “win-win” rightly makes sober people sick, but it might be applied to AT&T Mobility’s news that it will carry HTC Americas’ Tilt device, beginning Friday, at $300 with a two-year contract.
AT&T Mobility gets an enterprise-grade smartphone supporting its UMTS/HSDPA network with productivity and entertainment-to follow its Apple Inc. iPhone coup and meet complaints of that device’s deficiencies. HTC gets more visibility at the nation’s largest carrier.
Whether the Tilt will move the needle for either party during the fourth quarter is the question to be answered when the device hits shelves.
AT&T Mobility’s announcement today seemed to position the device squarely between the consumer and enterprise markets-actually, the carrier touted a public-safety customer, the Johnson City, Tenn. police department-but also cheered its multimedia and navigation features.
The device includes Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Mobile, a QWERTY keypad, 3-megapixel camera and 2.8-inch display, which slides back to reveal the keypad.
E-mail options include Research In Motion Ltd.’s BlackBerry Connect v4.0, which includes the device management capabilities sought by IT managers for security and setting use policies within the enterprise. And they’ve packed in TeleNav GPS Navigator for turn-by-turn directions both verbally and on-screen. AT&T Mobility did not give the device’s onboard memory spec, but said it would support MicroSD cards up to 4 gigabytes.