HTC launches first true iPhone competitor just as Apple is about to take its phone to next level

htc touch diamondIt’s about time. Well, sort of.

Taiwanese smart phone manufacturer HTC launched the Touch Diamond today and, as expected, it’s small, sleek, sexy, very iPhone-esque, and promising.

Unfortunately for those of us in the U.S. or Latin America, the Diamond will not be available until the second half of 2008. If you’re in European markets, the phone begins shipping in June, followed by Asia and the Middle East.

As you know, much has been said about the iPhone since its launch last June. Ever since then, any phone released by any manufacturer is compared with the iPhone.

But so far, no one has come close to the iPhone’s design, interface, usability, user experience, and overall satisfaction, although Nokia’s offerings are popular. One “phone” promised to take on the iPhone, but the so-called Gphone, running Google’s mobile operating system Android, hasn’t been released by any manufacturer yet, it isn’t expected until the fourth quarter, and is completely untested in the market.

htc touch diamond 2The Touch Diamond certainly has impressive specs — a 2.8-inch, 680×480 VGA display, quad-band, 3G, integrated Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0, GPS, HSDPA support, a 3.2-megapixel camera, 4GB internal storage, 256MB flash memory, 192MB RAM, and SD external storage. It runs Windows Mobile 6.1 and a full Web browser in Opera. And, as previously stated, its darn attractive.

But without having one to play with, it’s impossible to say how the Touch Diamond stacks up to the iPhone experience. For sake of argument, let’s hope HTC’s new phone is compelling and scares the pants off Apple in the name of competition.

Chances of that happening, however, are slim as Apple is about to move into the next phase of the iPhone’s life — as evidenced by all the rumors of the coming 3G phone, expected to be announced in early June with availability following shortly thereafter.

If Apple has played its hand right, the iPhone is poised to enter 2.0-land far ahead of everybody else, especially with a 3G offering, enterprise support, and third-party applications coming soon. HTC, Nokia, Gphone makers, Samsung, LG, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, and BlackBerry have yet to even hit with successful 1.0 products.

Apple also has a marketing and publicity advantage in the U.S., where Nokia is well known but doesn’t sell as many phones as it does worldwide. HTC has almost no name recognition, although it is slowly gaining in prominence.

While the HTC Touch Diamond appears to be a compelling product worthy of challenging the iPhone, we’ll have to wait and see it in action here in the States. And by then, iPhone 2.0 will be out. Will anybody even remember HTC?

Additional coverage: engadget, gizmodo, Cnet.

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last100 is edited by Steve O'Hear. Aside from founding last100, Steve is co-founder and CEO of Beepl and a freelance journalist who has written for numerous publications, including TechCrunch, The Guardian, ZDNet, ReadWriteWeb and Macworld, and also wrote and directed the Silicon Valley documentary, In Search of the Valley. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.

6 Responses to “HTC launches first true iPhone competitor just as Apple is about to take its phone to next level”

  1. Surur says:

    Wow! What a misguided post. HTC sold 3 million HTC Touch phones in 7 months, and sold 11 million phones in total (with features like 3G and GPS) last year.

    This phone offers a completely new user experience, especially visually,while we KNOW iPhone 2 will just continue to offer its boring grid of icons.

    This line in particular is laughable:
    “the iPhone is poised to enter 2.0-land far ahead of everybody else, especially with a 3G offering, enterprise support, and third-party applications coming soon”

    The iPhone is FINALLY CATCHING UP with its competitors with 3G, enterprise support and 3rd party apps. How this takes them far ahead is incomprehensible.

    If you use popularity in USA as a measure of success, you must think CDMA, Country music and GW Bush were very successful also.

  2. Steve O'Hear, editor says:

    @ Surur

    Great line: “If you use popularity in USA as a measure of success, you must think CDMA, Country music and GW Bush were very successful also.”

    Made me smile 🙂

    On a more serious note, I think Dan’s view of the iPhone is that in terms of overall user experience — not pure feature set — the iPhone has taken a lead. And now that it’s adding parity feature-wise, with 3G and enterprise support, coupled with the fruits that will come with an SDK, the iPhone is ring fencing that lead, or at least attempting to.

    However, I think there is a broader problem with all iPhone analysis. On paper, other phones have more going for them, but the subjective real experience of using an iPhone is somehow different and, to lots of people, superior, and yet hard to describe why. It’s not really about “touch” but the UI as a whole.

    Having said that, Nokia, for example, makes some very nice devices, with a lot of power and rich features, that better the iPhone. But the UI is looking a little outdated, with too many menu hoops to jump through. That is something which Nokia, along with everybody else, is trying to address in light of iPhone. That’s what Dan is referring to when he says they are on 1.0.

    As an example, HTC’s Diamond Touch goes out of its way to *hide* the Windows Mobile UI. Why is that?

  3. Icar says:

    IPhone runs uder BSD OS-system, It runs under fucking Win. I dislike this OS and this PDA!

  4. f0nefan says:

    no doubt that it is the best phone which HTC eve been made
    here is the HTC Diamond Vs. Apple iPhone – the ultimate specs comparison

    http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php?t=1368238

  5. f0nefan says:

    i did some search on the web and found that
    plemix is selling it 899$(ship b4 30th May)
    hi-mobile 939$ (pre-order)
    sntraders 868$ (free shipping)
    expansys-usa 795$(pre-order)

  6. Vitamin Booya says:

    I would definitely take this over the iPhone, were it not for a near $600 price difference.

Leave a Reply to Vitamin Booya