HTCdev.com was launched today at the Uplinq conference, giving developers a chance to tailor their apps for HTC’s particular handset customizations.
The biggest thing HTC is offering through the new dev portal is API access to the pen accessory launched with the Flyer tablet. There are a ton of possibilities there, considering within recent years most folks have abandoned the stylus in favour of chubby, imprecise fingers. HTCdev will also allow developers to play around with stereoscopic 3D, as found on the HTC EVO 3D. That’s not all though – much of Sense will be available for developers to play around with thanks to a new OpenSense SDK. Sample code, APIs, support, and common Sense UI elements will all be available. LinkedIn and Picasa have already integrated with HTC Sense thanks to these tools.
This is good news for those that want an app that burrows deep into a smartphone’s native experience, and an important step if HTC wants to stay differentiated among Android handset manufacturers while still supporting the growing base of common Android devs. I’m curious to see how many are willing to take the extra steps to custom-tailor their apps for HTC, but Sony Ericsson has already had some good progress on that front with Timescape. Head on over to HTCdev.com to sign up for notifications when the SDK is available. It looks like HTC also launched an enterprise portal, HTCpro.com, for companies looking for specific mobility solutions.