HTC's Touch Diamond is suffering from a significant delay that could critically affect the timing of its launch, say reports. UK reseller Devicewire and others are being told by HTC that the touchscreen phone will miss its originally scheduled June 9th release date and will be pushed back to June 23rd due to a last-minute firmware upgrade necessary for all of the devices.

The new date is a "worse [sic] case scenario" and may be preempted if the Diamond is available ahead of time, Devicewire says in its explanation of the delay.

Though minor, the delay puts the HTC Touch Diamond's first official appearance in Europe closer to the anticipated release window of the next-generation iPhone, its most obvious rival. Both ship with media playback and a large amount of internal storage as their emphasis alongside a custom touchscreen interface.