HTC Touches A Nerve With New Touch Screen Smartphones

Apple may have sold 1 million iPhones in less than three months, but HTC -- a Windows Mobile smartphone manufacturer -- gave the iPhone a run for its money with 800,000 HTC Touch phones sold in a similar period. It unveiled even more of them yesterday.Last week I blogged about the increasing importance of touch screen interfaces on advanced phones. We all know about the iPhone. While it may not have garnered nearly the same amount of press as the converged device from Apple, the HTC Touch (released mere weeks ahead of the iPhone) has sold almost as many units. That's without any advertising, unlike the iPhone, which has received nearly constant attention from the media since it was announced.

The Touch is a Windows Mobile smartphone that has a touch screen overlay that users can interact with to access the Touch's multimedia and other programs. Yesterday, HTC updated the Touch Dual with a sliding keypad and improved touch interface. But that's not all -- HTC added blazing fast HSDPA 3G speeds, something the iPhone is sadly lacking.

HTC also announced two other devices, the S730 and P6500. Both are Windows Mobile 6 devices that also include HSDPA and other business-focused features.

The one thing I will say is that the HTC Touch is available in a number of countries while the iPhone s only available in the United States (until Nov. 9th).

With the success of the HTC Touch and the iPhone, I think it is becoming clearer that there is a growing market for advanced, expensive phones that have better user interfaces than what has typically been available.