HTC Mobile unlock news

Smartphone seller HTC is now shipping the Advantage “mobile computer” in the United States. A cross between an expanded smartphone and an ultra-mini notebook computer, the Advantage is being sold “unlocked” — i.e. un-tethered to a specific carrier — and is available directly from HTC or at CompUSA stores.

This is the first time that HTC has offered an unlocked device in the United States. But that doesn’t mean the company is planning to move beyond its close integration with the Big 4 wireless carriers .

The Advantage, which runs Windows Mobile 6, and the Shift — a Windows Vista-powered device with a full QWERTY keyboard that debuted at the CTIA conference earlier this year and will go on sale in the U.S. later in 2007 — represent a new category of device that don’t fit neatly into the carriers’ product lines. It joins an array of pricey, high-end converged devices that have appeared in 2007. Among the big tech companies betting heavily on the “ultra-mobile PC” is Intel, which has designed a new line of chips specifically for these neither-fish-nor-fowl machines