Intro4u2u

Come the end of June, come the day of smartphone reckoning, come the dawn of the Apple iPhone media and consumer backlash? Indeed, despite the obvious trend-defined lure of the iPod-compatible iPhone, there is certainly no cast-iron guarantee that critic and consumer alike will embrace Apple’s latest technological offering. So, bearing that in mind, why not consider the sudden left-field appearance of HTC’s tactile alternative, the HTC Touch?

Given this week’s furore surrounding the official release date of the iPhone, High Tech Computer (HTC), the “world’s leading provider of Microsoft Windows Mobile-based smart devices” has cleverly chosen to announce the worldwide launch of its new HTC Touch, a handy portable device the Taiwan-based company describes as a “deceptively small and stylish” mobile phone that introduces a brand new concept “in intuitive touch screen navigation.” Sound familiar at all?”

All talk of corporate thunder stealing set firmly to one side for a moment, if you’re a consumer who demands a powerful and feature-rich experience from your mobile devices, then HTC believes that its new Touch is just what you’re looking for. Designed to integrate new levels of simplicity, the Touch offers “a new and unique way of controlling touch screen-based devices” through recognition and response tied into finger sweeps – with HTC claiming its device is “intelligent enough” to distinguish between both finger and stylus control, and respond accordingly.

”With the HTC Touch, access to your most commonly used content, contacts and features is only a simple finger flick away,” enthuses Peter Chou, chief executive officer of High Tech Computer. “Mobile phone makers have done a great job of cramming ever-more exciting features into ever-smaller phones. But the way in which one accesses these increasingly sophisticated features has not kept pace. That ends today with the HTC Touch.”

Offered up as delivering its users access to a balanced blend of communication, entertainment, and professional functions, HTC’s new sweeping and fully controllable TouchFLO technology provides one-touch entry to general features such as e-mail, text messages, calendar appointments, contacts, and current weather conditions and forecasts (should you require them) for literally hundreds of cities across the globe.

More probing features and details also at ‘the fingertip’ of the user include intuitive control of Web pages and related finger-led browsing and scrolling while online, as well as the HTC Touch utilising the functionality of its Windows Mobile 6 Professional OS to deliver Outlook Mobile, Office Mobile, Windows Live, and also provide access to thousands of compatible third-party applications.

Further technical stats attributed to the new HTC Touch include: a 2.8-inch LCD touch screen with backlight displaying a resolution of 240 x 320 with 65,536 colours; a 2.0 megapixel CMOS camera; 1GB microSD storage included / 64MB RAM, 128MB ROM; a rechargeable Lithium Ion battery that stows up to 200 hours of standby time and 5 hours of talk time (operational); and wireless connectivity provided by GSM/GPRS/EDGE Tri-band: 900, 1800, 1900, Wi-Fi: 802.11 b/g and Bluetooth 2.0.

Sized at 99,9mm x 58mm x 13.9mm (L x W x D) and weighing a mere 112grams, the HTC Touch (which perhaps similarly suffering, much like the iPhone, by opting for GSM in favour of the increased speed of 3G networks) will arrive in soft black or wasabi green when it arrives in late June in Asia and mainland Europe. The Americas version of the HTC Touch is expected to arrive in the latter half of 2007.

Prices are expected to be around €449 (approx. $600 USD), which is ‘just’ in range of the $599 USD 8GB iPhone