Good News!!

Having just spoken to Anne again, I am able to give a date for the release of this phone... finally. She said it should be released on the 20th of January, if all goes to plan and there's no hitches. She also said there would be plenty of stock and although she didn't know the cost of the phone exactly, she *thinks* it could be around the £350 mark... which you will obviously get your retentions discount on top of, that I hope bring it down to an affordable price, considering how long most of us have waited for the phone.

She is calling me on the 19th to confirm that the phone will be released as planned, so I will update here when I hear back.

At least it's not gone another few months forward again, which is a massive relief for me.


Note to commenter 'Mightily Miffed' who asked about the X1; apparently T Mobile have no plans to release this phone from what I have heard.

Another note: I tried the G1 out of sheer desperation... a load of rubbish in my opinion! Needless to say, it's been sent back!

Last one: Happy New Year!

Another Vario IV Delay... Plus Upgrade Problems/Delays

Just had a call from Anne at the Customer Service Directors office and she has been speaking to the acquisitions department who now say they're looking at the MIDDLE OF JANUARY for the release of this phone.

I honestly do not know why I feel so loyal and am hanging on/waiting for T Mobile to get themselves in gear as they're clearly just dragging their feet.

Also, I have been told (along with many others) that I cannot upgrade now until January even though I have been eligible for an upgrade for a while now (I even tried out the Omnia - didn't like it though). I believe this is because they have run out of funds in the upgrade 'piggy bank' but that I can have a 'Christmas Customer Loyalty Discount' applied to my account which will take my bill down by £5; I've accepted but it doesn't really cut it though and I am seriously considering taking my business elsewhere now as this really isn't good business practice by them.

Hmmmpffff!

Release Date: Not Good News!

I haven't posted for a short while as I haven't been told anything new regarding this phone or its release date, until today!

I've just spoken to Anne in the directors office again and have been told that the Vario IV has been put back as it's still in testing and is not going to make the October 1st release date that they originally hoped for. The date she has given me now is... wait for it....


..the END OF NOVEMBER!!!!


This has come as a real shock to me, and I've been left wondering if it's worth me waiting for it any more, since it's not even definite to be released at that time either. I have a friend who has the HTC Touch Pro and has said he's putting it on ebay as it's not very good, which is disappointing. I'd expect/hope some of these problems would be sorted with the Vario as this would be the kind of thing being tested and hopefully fixed - which is what is putting the release date back even further.. but it's just whether or not I want to wait almost 2 months after my contract is supposed to end before *maybe* being able to get this phone.

The only other phone I have been interested in is the Samsung Omnia, which I have now asked to try out and I should have on Friday for a 7 day trial.

I'll post again when I get the Omnia as if you're anything like me then you're possibly considering both!

Vodafone.. For Those Who Don't Mind Where/How They Get The Touch Pro

I also noticed that Vodafone have the HTC Touch Pro on the coming soon part of their business centre. They say release is expected to be August and you can register your interest on that page too.

http://www.vodafonebusinessshop.co.uk/Details-Phone-HTC-Touch-Pro-3037.html

Good on Vodafone for just releasing it as the HTC Touch Pro and not having to go through the tweaking and 'testing' stages that seem to take forever.

O2.

Ok, so it's not really an update on the Vario IV unfortunately, but I thought I'd post this anyway as it still seems fairly relevant to me.

It seems O2 are even worse than T Mobile as they haven't even managed to get their version of the HTC Diamond (MDA Compact IV) out yet.

Having spoken to a few customer service agents at O2 on the phone this weekend, it seems they don't have a clue about this phone at all, let alone a release date. Looks like I'lll be giving head office a ring tomorrow to see if they know anything.


What is wrong with these people? Why can't/won't they just give us a date for these phones?

Release Date Of The T-Mobile MDA Vario IV/4:

I know there's a lot of people (myself included) who are awaiting the release of this phone but are getting no luck regarding the release date from T Mobile. I've had contradicting statements from every person I have spoken to at T Mobile regarding this; the store in Manchester told me 2 weeks (2 weeks ago), customer service told me August, September and October, and Customer relations told me "I'm afraid we've no plans to release the MDA vario IV in the near future. I'm sorry if you've been advised to the contrary. However, we do have the MDA compact IV available now." via email.

I took things into my own hands and decided to ring T Mobile Head Office, which I have done today and spoken to Anne, who works in the directors office there. She actually went and spoke to the senior purchasing manager, who told her that the Vario IV has a provisional release date of October 1st 2008; and that the phone is currently in testing, but that the release date is dependant on how long the testing/tweaking takes and also the depletion rate of the current Vario III.

I asked why it would take so long, since the MDA Compact IV was released fairly soon after the HTC touch Diamond (the phone that the Compact IV is based on) and she said that it is because it has more on it to test. I don't know how correct this statement is, but I thought that the actual features on the phone weren't that different between the 2 phones so wouldn't have thought that *much* more testing would be required; I guess time will tell on this one. She then told me that it would definitely NOT be any time before this date but that she would let me know of any developments as and when they happened; so I will update this page whenever I hear from her.

It was not the news I wanted to hear anyway, I'm dying to get my hands on it.