HTC Sense coming to Windows Mobile – confirmed again

We have recently had a concerned reader questioning our story earlier than HTC’s new user interface will be coming to our Windows Mobile devices.

This is what Christian had to write:

Dear Sir or Madam,

I’ve recently written to the editor of mobileburn.com asking him about the new “HTC Sense” and whether it might also become available for older Windows Mobile devices. However, Mr. Oryl’s reply frankly has taken me aback: He stated that “Sense” is Android-exclusive and would in fact never become available for other platforms.

I would be glad if you could comment on Oryl’s understanding of “HTC Sense”. You can see his full reply below.

Sincerely yours,

Christian

Reply from Michael F Oryl (editor @ mobileburn.com):

“HTC never indicated that the new UI would be available on WinMo – it won’t be, in fact. The confusion comes from some sites not getting their facts straight. HTC said that TouchFLO 3D was part of Sense. Sense is *already* on WinMo.

The fact that HTC has not given the new UI on the Hero a proper name has led people to assuming that Sense refers only to the UI on the Hero, which is not the case. In any case, HTC caused the confusion by not giving the new UI a real name it could refer to. Sense is merely a philosophy, not an actual user interface.

Make no mistake, TouchFLO 3D is staying on WinMo devices, and the new, unnamed UI is what HTC will be using for Android devices that lack the "with Google" branding.

This of course went against our earlier understanding and also any reasonable interpretation of HTC’s statements in press releases and to reporters.  We therefore approach HTC’s PR for an official response, which is here below:

I just have a quick enquiry about your new product, the HTC Hero and its interface, Sense.

Will the Sense Widget-based interface be coming to HTC’s new Windows Mobile products, or will they remain with the same TouchFlo3D paradigm?

My readers are very interested in this question.

Thanks

To which HTC responded:

In answer to your question:

The Hero UI has been created specifically for HTC’s Android-based phones but also represents that three core pillars of HTC Sense.  HTC’s future Windows Mobile phones will also be based on HTC Sense, but will enhance Windows Mobile in a way that is as appropriate and valuable to people.

Now that answer seems pretty clear cut to me – some version of HTC Sense is coming to Windows Mobile.  It will not be exactly the same, but will be a departure from the TouchFlo3D. This of course makes perfect sense – HTC is all about motivating people to upgrade to new devices, and their main angle these days is software, and Sense is in the end just a more advanced version of TouchFlo3D.

Lets hope that this is the end of speculation regarding the issue.