HTC pitches tablet for movies and games

Disruptive device manufacturer HTC stepped into the limelight on Tuesday with the unveiling of a tablet running Android 2.4 and geared up for online gaming.

The HTC flyer, seven inches of aluminium and glass, uses the vendor’s in house developed UI, known as Sense, to give it a 3D carousel of widgets on the home screen set up for touch and stylus interaction, which allows the tablet to be used like a traditional notebook.

The vendor is also pushing its own video download service, which promises “low-cost on-demand progressive downloading” of HD movies from major studios, what’s not yet clear is whether that will only be over wifi or over 3G as well.

But in another partnership, with cloud-based gaming platform OnLive, HTC is touting the Flyer as an interface for online gaming. When integrated fully, the OnLive service will enable customers to pipe the service through the tablet’s broadband wireless to their television sets, or let them play directly on the tablet.

The Flyer will be available to customers globally during the second quarter.