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As the US gets fully functional HSPA networks at last, and starts to catch up with Asia in pursuing mobile web models, consumers are increasingly frustrated at the limited choice of smartphones available. The day of Nokia's launch of its N97 high end handset saw an outcry on the US blogs at the lack of any indication of a US launch date. While homegrown phonemakers like Apple, plus the US-centric HTC, benefit from the lack of competition from the European giants, consumer demand may start to help Nokia in its uphill battle to penetrate the north American fortress at last.

Nokia has made some baby steps towards closer relationships with the GSM/HSPA carriers, notably working on some customized models for AT&T, but these are midrange phones, and the flagships like the N Series superphones, or Sony Ericsson's Xperia X1, are only available, if at all, without a carrier deal - which means shelling out $600-$900. But Nokia is showing signs of stepping up its direct-to-consumer push, and sources are promising a major cut in the lengthy lead time between the launch of its key phone models, and the release of a version for US bands. Insiders at this week's Nokia World event in Barcelona said an N97 might appear in the US, though without a carrier deal, as early as September 2009, just three months after the launch in Europe and parts of Asia and the developing economies. Already, the typical lead time of a year or more has been reduced for the N85 and other devices with which Nokia hopes to increase its direct-to-consumer presence and make a play for the shift towards open access.

Users need to put more pressure on operators to sign up a wider range of smartphones, as well as reminding phonemakers that the US is no longer a mobile broadband backwater. Americans spent $2.9bn to buy 32m cellphones in the third quarter, despite consumer downturn, but as an angry editorial in the Dallas Morning News put it: "Most handset makers still seem to assume that Americans are uninterested in or undeserving of the coolest, most cutting edge devices. So we get no HTC Touch HD, and the once-hot Omnia only came out here just as its souped-up successor, the T*Omnia, with an 800x480 res screen and digital TV tuner, is shipping in Korea."

The vendor that has benefited most from the limited choice of smartphones on the US' HSPA networks - CDMA does better, with a decent range from the Korean suppliers - is Apple, whose iPhone roared onto a seriously uncrowded field, a luxury it did not enjoy elsewhere. HTC has also taken advantage, despite complaints that some of its models are being pushed out in Asia first. Though Taiwan-based, it is heavily US-centric, as seen by the launch of its Android G1 phone with T-Mobile USA first, ahead of the carrier's European territories. It is strengthening its relations with T-Mobile in order to raise its profile on the GSM/HSPA networks and with consumers - its Touch range has also scored fairly highly on CDMA. The long awaited successor to the HTC/T-Mobile Shadow device is on the horizon, as it has appeared on the FCC's web site. Like most of HTC's current range, it runs Windows Mobile, and has been upgraded to release 6.1. The slidephone supports Wi-Fi/GSM dual-mode and UMA for fixed/mobile convergence under T-Mobile's Hotspot@Home program, and also features a 2-megapixel camera, quad band world roaming and a faster processor - but no 3G, despite the expansion of T-Mobile's W-CDMA/HSPA network. No pricing or release date yet.

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