Click to View

Not every smartphone vendor takes the same approach as Apple, which has rolled out the iPhone at snails pace (only three markets - the U.S., U.K. & Germany) since its introduction five months ago. There's something to be said about getting a hot new smartphone in any as many markets as quickly as possible.

Take High Tech Computer (HTC) as an example. By the end of October, the leading Windows Mobile-device surpassed a million units shipped of its touch-controlled smartphone, the HTC Touch, company CEO Peter Chou reported to Digitimes yesterday.

HTC estimates that number will grow to between 1.5 and 1.8 million units before the close of this year, Chou added. These numbers are composed of shipments of the original Touch, in addition to two additional Touch models, the Touch Slide (this must be the one known also known as the Touch Dual) and Touch Color.

Not only that, the company expects to increase shipments in 2008 by 20 percent over this year's projected 11 million units.

By comparison, Apple's stated goal for the iPhone is to hit the 10 million unit mark next year.

The Touch in Touch
The key ingredient in all HTC's Touch smartphones, including the new Touch Cruise (announced a couple of days ago) is its proprietary TouchFLO technology, which essentially grafts an advanced touch interface onto the Windows Mobile GUI. TouchFLO is capable of recognizing and responding to the sweep of a finger across a screen.

The technology is even supposed to be intelligent enough to distinguish between finger and stylus input and then respond accordingly. Sweep your fingers across 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 what appears to be easier access to these features for consumers than a normal Windows Mobile interface for most.

The Touch Cruise is supposed to ship in Europe later this month. Since it’s a quad-band smartphone with support for a couple of U.S.-friendly GSM bands and 3G UMTS/HSDPA 3G bands, there's a good possibility the Touch Cruise will eventually make it to the U.S. as well.