Alright, so the cat may already be out of the bag (thank you, Vodafone!), but HTC still has a swanky London venue booked for today and the show, as they say, must go on. What's more, there's no reason to believe the 4.3-inch HTC Sensation will be the only thing announced at today's marquee event from the Taiwanese smartphone and tablet maker. More buddies for the Flyer, perhaps? Unlikely, but weirder things have happened. Join us after the break for a little bit of good old liveblog action.
2:04PM That's all for now!
2:04PM Time to start making our way to the hands-on area. Hold tight, we'll have video for you.
2:03PM "With our broadest range of products, we're reaching to more and more consumers to help them enjoy smartphones."
2:03PM "As you can see, 2011 is shaping up to be another great year."
2:02PM We're going to try and get some more hands-on time with the Euro model.
2:02PM Things look to be wrapping up.
2:01PM On the Sensation, "it's fast, it's a beast."
2:01PM Now touting Vodafone's investments in 3G infrastructure. "We are putting in place the infrastructure, both technically and commercially" to facilitate the growth mentioned earlier.
1:59PM "A real revolution."
1:59PM Within the next two years, they expect at least 70 percent of cell phones to be smartphones.
1:59PM Vodafone passed a key milestone. £5 billion of mobile internet revenue. Mobile internet revenue has taken over SMS revenue for the company!
1:58PM Shockingly, he loves the product.
1:58PM A "very special guest" from Vodafone coming on stage, Patrick Chomet.
1:57PM Available across the rest of Europe and other partner carriers from June.
1:57PM Will be available first with Vodafone across their key markets in Europe starting from the middle of May.
1:56PM "A blazingly fast, beautiful smartphone with an unprecedented multimedia experience."
1:56PM Uses progressive downloading. "The moment you press play, the moment you start watching."
1:55PM You can rent movies or buy them. You can access them on other devices, such as the Flyer.
1:55PM HTC Watch is fully integrated into HTC Sense, so you get the best experience possible.
1:54PM "Watch deliveries you a library of blockbuster titles straight to your fingerptips."
1:54PM HTC Sensation will be the first smartphone to feature HTC Watch.
1:53PM DLNA wireless streaming, as is almost standard with HTC these days.
1:52PM Stereo sound recording too! There's also a new video trimmer.
1:52PM Full 1080p HD video at 30 fps. Nice!
1:52PM Instant Capture feature on the camera promises truly instant shots.
1:51PM Better email, WiFi printing.
1:50PM "Launching apps is now twice as quick as before. And multitasking gets even better."
1:50PM Features a dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon. "This chip is a monster!"
1:49PM Fancy new animations on the full-screen weather widget.
1:49PM "Weather is one of the top three things that people want to see on a phone."
1:49PM Also delivers "a beautiful new home screen."
1:48PM Basically, you can launch apps from the lockscreen. Yay!
1:48PM Dragging an app into the unlock circle and "you're straight there."
1:47PM "The most dramatic set of improvements to HTC Sense"... ever!
1:47PM 35 percent more pixels than a regular screen thanks to qHD resolution on the Super LCD display.
1:46PM "the first phone in the world to have countoured glass along the entire edge of the screen."
1:46PM "HTC Sensation embodies the very best of our famed design language."
1:45PM "More excited about this phone than any one we've ever launched before."
1:44PM Video demo time!
1:43PM And third of all, "it would have to give you an easy new way to experience and enjoy all your favorite content on your device."
1:43PM First, it'd have to look beautiful. Second of all, it'd have to have "top notch specs."
1:43PM "What would such a phone have to look like?"
1:43PM The challenge is in tying all these good things in a "fun, rich and easy way."
1:42PM The challenge is no longer just the hardware, or the network speed, or having enough content available.
1:41PM Another groundbreaking device... "video, music, games and reading books has become even more popular with consumers, turning their smartphones into pocket-sized multimedia centers."
1:40PM The HTC Flyer will go on sale from May 9th across Europe!
1:40PM Last week, HTC announced its best quarterly results ever.
1:39PM The Facebook phones, and the new S family. Namedrop for the Desire S going on sale in the UK in the last weekend. "Extremely strong" customer response.
1:39PM Starting off by recounting the MWC announcements.
1:38PM Here we go!
1:34PM Some crazily oversized telephoto lenses on show in the front of the crowd. Some photographers seem to be keen to get hands-on pics with Peter Chou as their model.
1:32PM Press conference will be starting in five minutes. Chilled music fills the air.
