Hiptop To Leap Into Color Soon

The number of rumors running around concerning when the color Danger hiptop would finally be available was just going crazy. Now that it appears most T-Mobile stores are completely out of stock on the monochrome devices, Danger has finally admitted that the color devices should be available by the end of next month. Additional improvements on the device will include a faster processor and a higher resolution (though, still pretty pokey) camera (for an additional $50). The device itself is expected to sell for around $300 - which surprises me a bit. From the beginning Danger has always said that their target was to make sure any device they sold went for less than $200. Also, with all the insane rebates offered on the initial Danger devices, sometimes pushing the price down to nothing, it makes you wonder how well the device will sell at higher prices. Personally, I'm going to hold off on switching to a color version until (1) I see if similar rebates show up knocking the price down (2) I see how T-Mobile decides to start charging for data once the one-year "unlimited data" plan goes away (3) I find out what the battery life is with the color screen and the faster processor and (4) more is known about their developer program, which seems so backwards that it makes me wonder why they even bothered. The device would be worth so much more to me if they simply opened up their developer program and let anyone write and offer whatever applications they wanted - instead of kowtowing to T-Mobile, and agreeing to lock up the applications so that T-Mobile can decide which ones are worth offering (and which ones they want to charge for). Also rumored (though, not mentioned in the article) is that Danger will be releasing a "data only" plan at some point, which would be great for those of us who don't use it as a phone.

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