Taiwan's HTC has announced the global launch of the HTC Touch, a new handset with touch screen navigation. The company says that the HTC Touch represents extensive research and development and the conviction that fingertip control will enable more efficient, natural and intuitive touch screen navigation. The HTC Touch offers a new and unique way of controlling touch screen-based devices by recognising and responding to the sweep of a finger across the screen. It is intelligent enough to distinguish between finger and stylus input and then respond accordingly.
Comparisons with the Apple iPhone are obvious, and like the iPhone - it supports GSM and Wi-Fi, but not 3G.
The HTC Touch is the first device to feature TouchFLO, the new underlying touch screen technology developed by HTC. Consumers simply sweep their finger up the display to launch an animated, three-dimensional interface comprising three screens: Contacts, Media and Applications. The interface can be spun by swiping a finger right or left across the display, providing efficient access to the features consumers use most. TouchFLO also enhances finger touch scrolling and browsing of Web pages, documents, messages and contact lists.
Leveraging the broad functionality of Windows Mobile 6 Professional, the HTC Touch includes Outlook Mobile, Office Mobile and the capabilities to run thousands of third-party applications. The HTC Touch also features a 2 mega-pixel camera, a 2.8-inch colour LCD screen and comes with a 1GB microSD card.
The announcement marks the first time that HTC has introduced an HTC product globally, and comes almost exactly a year after the company launched its first own-branded products in June 2006. The HTC Touch will also be the first HTC-branded product to be sold in Asia. The HTC Touch will be available to customers across Europe and Asia this month, beginning today in the United Kingdom.
The HTC Touch will be initially available to Orange customers in the UK, France, Spain and the Netherlands, with a customised version for T-Mobile to follow.
Yves Maitre, VP Devices, Orange, says "We are delighted to be first to launch this innovative new smartphone, which will open the door to widespread use of touch screen devices. Orange has the widest portfolio of Microsoft smartphones and was the first operator to launch a Windows 6.0 device. This latest addition cements Orange's position as the leading operator in the smartphone market. Orange and HTC have a heritage of innovating with new types of smartphone and the HTC Touch is a great example of this."
T-Mobile will launch a customised version of the device which will be named the MDA Touch across key European markets. The innovative and strong multi-media feature set of the MDA Touch will be a powerful fit to T-Mobile's "web'n'walk" proposition.
HTC Touch key features
Posted to the site on 5th June 2007
Posted to: www.cellular-news.com/story/24167.php