Following HTC's earlier announcement to rollout the HTC Touch in Asia as well, HTC also said on Tuesday that it will launch its Microsoft Windows Mobile 6 Professional-based smartphone, the HTC Touch in the United States by the end of the year (which is quite opposite to Apple's iPhone launch strategy where the iPhone is launched first in the US end of this month followed by Europe end of this year).
The company's second-half U.S. launch for its newly released HTC Touch phone follows the recent release for the model in Britain and across Europe, said Chief Executive Officer Peter Chou.

"We've finally walked out of our different twists and turns," Chou said, a reference to his company's recent shift from making phones for other firms, known as original design manufacturing (ODM), to making phones under its own HTC brand name.

Chou said non-ODM phones now account for more than 70 percent of the company's sales.

He said HTC should post third-quarter revenue higher than the current quarter, and that unit phone shipments for all of 2007 should grow from 2006. The company is expected to post third-quarter revenue of T$ 30.1 billion (US$ 912 million), up from a forecast of T$ 27.3 billion for the current quarter, according to analysts polled by Reuters Estimates.

Cheers ~ Arne