I would be so all over the Raphael with Sprint SERO if they were ready to go live with it now. I have to wait until December when the 2-year pact with the devil expires, or else within around the next 60 days try and enforce the contract and get into something like this. There was a report out today that there's a new opportunity to get away from VZW scott-free:
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/E...t-An-ETF-93984
The only other phone out there I'm really interested in is the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1, but initial pricing I've seen (around $999) is making me have 2nd thoughts. I wonder if the release of the 3G iPhone will light a fire under someone's tail and they'll get it out to the street much sooner. Hoping the pricing wars are about to begin as well - $199 for the 3G 4GB iPhone seems like a steal, and should put some pressure on the market. They are going to seriously cut into the WM handset market if MS doesn't get cracking with a good update and the pricepoint of high-end phones doesn't come way down. When you can pick up a small form factor notebook or UMPC for around $500, the days of the $499-599 cellphone are numbered.
The userbase is really demanding more functionality out of their handset these days, and the manufacturers can't be blind to that fact. Hopefully they've got all the video/BT/WLAN/GPS drivers working right out of the gate this time. The FM radio and TV out features have me drooling and I've seen a rumor that the screen will tilt like the TyTn II. Cmon HTC, get a move on!