I’ve been excitedly waiting to see how HTC’s inevitable moves in the tablet space were going to play out. Now some more scant details are emerging from Digitimes.

According to Digitimes (in their typically brief manner):

“HTC will launch the Flyer tablets in cooperation with a telecom carrier, aiming to push sales ahead the planned launch of RIM's PlayBook in March and Motorola's Xoom in April, the sources noted.

Users will be able to upgrade the OS to Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) whenever the new OS is available, indicated the sources.”-Source

They also noted 2 other tablets may appear from HTC in the June time frame as well.

Fasten your high flying seatbelts folks, timing looks to be a big issue in the tablet game for 2011. HTC’s strategy seems to be to beat RIM out the door and likely HP too on 2.3 tablet that’s poised to update to 3.0.

“No sooner had images of HP's upcoming WebOS-based tablet appeared on line, the computer giant immediately popped up to say it'll have something better to show at its "exciting WebOS announcement" next month.

Just don't expect them any time soon: September 2011 appears to be the launch date.”-Source

I think that’s probably a smart move on HTCs part to launch early with a 2.3 version as long as they communicate well that an upgrade to 3.0 will be coming and they provide it in a timely manner. HTCs big challenge/advantage will be how they integrate a fairly mature HTC Sense UI on top of the whole package to create a unique positioning or themselves. 

HTC has also done a good job of tying/integrating Sense back to users PCs by offering backed up messaging, lost and found and synching services. It would be nice if they went beyond their YOU themed campaign and perhaps positioned the Flyer as a multimedia powerhouse or even a creative tablet tool.

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