HTC claims 800,000 Touch phones sold
updated 01:30 pm EDT, Tue October 2, 2007
HTC sells 800,000 Touches
Taiwanese phone maker HTC claims it has sold approximately 800,000 units of its Touch smartphone, Reuters reports. While not yet available in North America, the Touch has only been on sale in Europe and Asia since June, making for one of the most impressive phone launches in industry history. The record is eclipsed mainly by the sales of the iPhone, which broke the 1 million barrier in early September. "This is better than I expected...We feel very good about our success," comments HTC CEO Peter Chou.
The sales of the Touch may be partly attributed to the iPhone, at least due to the former's TouchFLO interface, which closely mimics the natural finger gestures used with the iPhone's touchscreen. Both phones also launched in the same month in different regions, even though the Touch had been announced later. Ironically, Apple's decision to release the iPod touch -- based on the iPhone -- may land it in legal trouble with HTC, a lawyer noting that the combination of the name and similar features may violate trademarks. Both the Apple and HTC Touches have touchscreens, Wi-Fi and media playback.
HTC has already announced a successor to the Touch, the Touch DUAL, a phone that adds 3G broadband and a slide-out keypad, borrowing concepts from Research in Motion's BlackBerry devices. It should launch in Europe later this month.
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Apr 2002
I feel sorry for those
I feel sorry for those who wasted there money on this product. The display is washed out, it's running Windblows, and its SOOOOOOOOOO SLOW!!! Not to mention the interface is like all the other phones out there where you have to dig into the menu 3 levels down before you get to the option you want. The only difference is it has a touch screen.