Galaxy S 2, Desire HD2, Desire 2, Wildfire 2 Full Specs Leaked
Even more pre-MWC leaks from Expansys, as the company has now posted full spec sheets on the HTC Desire HD2, Samsung Galaxy S 2, HTC Desire 2, and HTC Wildfire 2. As suspected, the Galaxy S 2 is said to run …
Context & Ripple Effects
This is a repeat of a pattern Expansys established years ago: back in January 2009 the UK reseller listed an unannounced HTC handset for sale before HTC had confirmed it existed, and it is now doing the same thing at scale with four flagships at once. The timing is deliberate — Mobile World Congress opens within days, the window when Samsung and HTC would normally control their own reveals.
The leak also slots into Samsung's recent drip of unofficial detail: October's 'Nexus Two' rumors were followed by January's FCC filing for a GT-i9023 Nexus S variant running what looked like Android 2.4, so the Galaxy S 2 spec sheet surfacing via a retailer rather than Samsung itself continues a run in which the successor's shape has been defined by third parties first.
First-order effects
- Samsung and HTC lose control of their MWC announcements: the Galaxy S 2, Desire HD2, Desire 2, and Wildfire 2 specs are public before either vendor has confirmed them, shifting the reveal narrative to Expansys and the blogs that republish it.
- Buyers comparing upgrades get concrete numbers — processor, screen, OS version — weeks or months ahead of carrier pricing, letting early adopters decide whether to wait rather than buy current models like the original Galaxy S.
Second-order effects
- Retailers gain leverage in the launch cycle: whoever posts specs and takes pre-orders first captures search traffic and deposit-holding customers, pressuring carriers and rival e-tailers to match or accelerate their own listings.
- Competing Android makers showing at MWC must position against leaked specs they did not choose to publish, since the comparison baseline is now set by Expansys's sheets rather than anyone's keynote.
Third-order effects
- If retailers keep functioning as the de facto announcement channel — a role Expansys has now played across multiple cycles — vendor-managed launches shrink to confirmation events, and the information advantage moves from manufacturers to distribution.
- A leak-driven cadence compresses the secrecy premium around flagship hardware, pushing differentiation toward software, services, and exclusive carrier deals rather than spec sheets that are public before launch.
The trend: Pre-show retail leaks are steadily replacing vendor keynotes as the point where flagship smartphone specs become public knowledge.