http://www.androphones.com/htc-passion-android-phone-122.html

Just to verify, what we had a picture of was the Passion NOT the Eris. I even verified it. BUT unfortunately, we don’t know if it is the way it will look when it is released or where it is going or anything else for that matter, everyone went verrrry silent on that phone recently (Verizon, Google or whoever put a lid on it I would assume). But that makes me think it is coming out sooner than later.
If it is going to Verizon (which I kinda still think it is) then they will wait a bit for the Droid marketting to die down before they announce the new phone (obviously they don’t/didn’t want the Passion to upstage the Droid and people to wait for it instead of jumping on the Droid when it came out like they had planned).
But again just speculation as noone can get any word on it.

PS I don’t know anyone who works in Verizon…

Nice! Hey can you confirm if the pictures we have are the Passion you played with in the store. Or are you referring to the Eris not the Passion?

Nice find!
Have any links or other proof for that?

I just want a 3.5+” Sense UI phone with a quicker processor, no hardware buttons although I’m ok with the track pad, and the same cool docking hardware as the droid and I’m not afraid to tell anyone… not that it helps me any. I’d also like to get as far away from AT&T as possible. Unfortunately sprint and tmobile aren’t options either so I’m really hoping for the passion to be on verizon.

The Eris is the Hero so if it gets 2.0 the Heros won’t be far behind (and they will actually get it before the Eris does, since the Hero worldwide is a much more popular device).
As for send and end on screen, my HTC Hero has them on screen and it’s 1.5…

They have had 2.0 for awhile. The hero isn’t getting 2.0 for awhile because it’s already out which is less of a PR issue. I’d be we don’t see anymore phones released with < 2.0 anymore (besides the eris)

Any chance the Passion/Dragon will be coming with the new HTC UI that’s been disclosed recently? If Sense UI is not yet ready for 2.0, perhaps this new UI was designed to work with 2.0 from the start? Thoughts?

http://www.unwiredview.com/2009/10/30/hts-is-working-on-next-gen-virtual-book-touch-ui/

How does the timing of patent filings usually line up with launch date, could it really be out soon? or does this imply we’ll see it some time in the second half of 2010? Just thinking out loud…

I don’t enough about all the intangibles to say whether something like this is simply far fetched, technically infeasible, against some contractual obligations/regulations, etc… but god, wouldn’t it be sweet to finally decouple the choice of phone from carrier!

I’ve been with Verizon over 4 years because at the end of the day i’m still mostly concerned about having a device on a network that always works, no matter where i am. I’ve been with every single carrier over the last 15 years (Qualcomm, VoiceStream/T-Mobile, Alltel, BellSouth/Cingular/AT&T) and i’ve never had the “SLO” met as i do with Verizon. I simply don’t know what dropped calls are, and my friends on AT&T can’t stop complaining about their service/speed/call quality/etc… I’m not some fanboy of Verizon and was actually ready to leave them for AT&T hoping that some of the stories of investments into infrastructure, 850 Mhz spectrum, etc… were going to lead to improved all around service and then all this Android news hit and now i’m in “hurry up and wait” mode…torn between Droid and HTC Passion. Whew…that was a long winded venting session…needless to say i’m anxious to hear any news about Passion otherwise it’s Droid here i come!

I think that is a good theory, but as for the Passion being CDMA/GSM this is possible but usually very expensive for a carrier, so not sure if they would do that. Now it would be VERY interesting if they did do that though and put pentaband 3G in it… this is what I think manufacturers should have been doing for a while now…

I think HTC is about the become a household name in the US and start selling their phones direct with their first device to be the Passion/Dragon. If the rumors are true this phone will be CDMA and GSM so you’ll be able to take it to any carrier. Also, i think the viral campaign (“You”) launched a few weeks ago in the US is a precursor of a larger HTC launch as a brand in the US. Thoughts?

P.S. If anyone is aware of where i can snag the “Droid sound” somewhere let me know…you know, the sound the Droid phone makes on start-up at the end where the robotic voice says “Ddrrrrroooooiiiiiiiiddd”.

Wow, that is pretty interesting and I wouldn’t be surprised is HTC started selling unlocked phones stateside (they have thought about it for a while and they are the only manufacturer that even honors their overseas unlocked phones warranties here in the US).

http://www.phonedog.com/cell-phone-research/blog/mystery-htc-passion-dragon-headed-to-t-mobile-uk.aspx

“I’m actually amazed that HTC has managed to keep this phone a secret as long as they have. Here’s the scoop on the Passion… It’s not necessarily just a CDMA phone… it’s not necessarily just a GSM phone… it WILL be released in the USA (sooner than you think)… it will be HTC branded… it will be sold directly by HTC (not tied to a specific carrier/like the Xperia X1/X1a). HTC isn’t satisfied with sitting in the shadows anymore… and it’s coming.”

If there’s any credibility to this it implies it won’t be picked up by any carrier and support both CDMA and GSM. Not sure what to think of all that…

Should have read the comments above mine. So still no new details huh?

Sounds like fun.