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HTC Touch sales half that of Apple's iPhone

By Tim Conneally, BetaNews

January 21, 2008, 2:03 PM

Taiwanese handset manufacturer HTC has reported its sales for 2007, and it looks like the touch-screen smart phone market is more balanced than it is often portrayed to be.

The HTC Touch and Touch Dual run Windows Mobile 6 and utilize a gestural touch interface much like Apple's iPhone, the lineup's chief competition.

Steve Jobs said last week at Macworld that Apple had sold 4 million iPhones worldwide since its launch. HTC today reported a surprisingly aggressive 2 million Touch phones had been sold. In total, the company reported sales of 11.8 million handsets, 12% more than it had sold in 2006, garnering 12% more revenue as a result.

LG, producer of another popular touch-screen phone, the Voyager, is scheduled to release its Q4 reports on Thursday. That company had a guidance of 22.5 million total handsets sold for the fourth quarter of 2007.

With the impending release of a Nokia handset that was shown to run on the Symbian S60 platform providing tactile feedback, and a Sony Ericsson touch-equipped handset it previewed late last year, 2008 will have even more options for consumers seeking a touch device.

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By willgill

posted Jan 22, 2008 - 8:59 PM

I'd agree with stellanwick. The iPhone does what it does very well, but frankly it's pretty limited compared to the HTC Touch. I have my Touch loaded with an 8gig MicroSD. The Touch does video, slick photo album, Push email (LOVE THAT), real GPS with the help of key fob GPS receiver, Outlook integration is tight, Touch has removable battery, upgradeable memory, 3G, the Touch is smaller and there are loads of programs and customizations you can do to it without having to hack it to the point of possibly bricking it.

Score: 0

By stellanwick

edited Jan 22, 2008 - 11:39 AM

For what the iPhone does, it does well. But quite simply put, there is nothing the iPhone does that the HTC Touch can not do. Plus there are way more applications for the Touch. Lastly, and most importantly to business users, you cannot beat the Microsoft Exchange integration. The iPhone's IMAP-so-called-Exchange support is great for e-mail, but lacks the integration with the calendar, contacts and every other important Exchange feature. Plus, being able to remote manage your clients via LogMeIn or Remote Desktop is downright sweet.

Score: 0

By pitdingo2

posted Jan 22, 2008 - 11:21 AM

No surprise here. The iPhone is by far the better device. You can't polish a turd and expect it to beat the iPhone.

When you look at the non-corporate market, you know, where people vote with their own money, no one is even close to the iPhone.

Score: 0

By yountmj

posted Jan 23, 2008 - 12:11 AM

Of course you can polish turds. Have you seen how shiny Apple's devices are?

Score: 0

By preinterpost

posted Jan 22, 2008 - 7:59 AM

I am using various HTC devices for many years and am baffled daily about what iPhone owners get exceited about, which I take for granted since 5 years. Most depressing is that some are serious techies. Apple marketing is just amazing...

Score: 0

By GordieT

posted Jan 22, 2008 - 6:54 AM

I wonder if the stats here are just for HTC branded handsets? Or are they for all the handsets HTC produces for other companies such as Qtech, i-Mate, DoPod, O2, T-Mobile, Orange, Cingular, and Vodafone.

Score: 0

By extremely well

posted Jan 22, 2008 - 12:52 AM

All too predictable.

http://www.betanews.com/...ter/1192813599#c1022026

Extremely Well has spoketh.

Score: 0

By MikeTechno

posted Jan 21, 2008 - 10:34 PM

I think product does matter, at least to some degree, because you have to be able to follow through on the promise that the marketing makes to the public. If your marketing department is writing checks that your product just can't come close to casing, you will absolutely be out of business in no time.

However, if your product is decent, and you have stellar marketing, you can absolutely beat out a whole host of competing products in your space that are technically superior and more advanced/capable.

We have seen this happen hundreds and hundreds of times before, in both software and hardware. Things rarely reach market dominance by their technical virtues alone. They have to be helped along by very clever and very effective marketing moves that generates hype, spin and mold public perception.

We have even seen great marketing bring bad products to the top of their respective arena's in the past where technically speaking, they had no business what so ever being there...and everyone knew it.

Nothing should really surprise us in this context any more though really, based on what we have seen in the past.

Score: 0

By xyzcb1

posted Jan 21, 2008 - 7:16 PM

Why don't these companies learn? Just take a page from Apple. Product does not matter, it just the marketing.

Score: 0

By portablenuke

posted Jan 22, 2008 - 9:30 AM

I've played with both the iPhone and the Touch, and I can tell you the touch-screen feature on the Touch is kind of hackish.

Windows Mobile does have touch-screen capability, but it's designed to be used in conjunction with a stylus, not a finger. This means that more pressure is required, and that the experience with apps outside of the ones that HTC optimized suffers. Basically it's not as easy to use.

If the Touch was on the same level, I would say so as I agree that ninety percent of Apple is marketing BS. The Touch is not though. It might be after Windows Mobile 7 is released though.

Score: 0

By xyzcb1

posted Jan 22, 2008 - 9:58 AM

WM is not figure friend is not because the design is bad, it just they have a smaller screen. The theme for WM can be change. So I don't know what do you mean the Touch is not on the same level as the iPhone. Beside the bigger screen, there is nothing it can do that Touch doesn't. Touch can do a lot more than iPhone.

Score: 0

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