HTC sells 800,000 Touch handsets

Sure, Apple managed to move a cool one million iPhones in 74 days, but for HTC, it too has quite a lot to be proud of. Since launching the Touch in Europe / Asia this past June, the company has reportedly sold some 800,000 units, and even the CEO admitted that the figure was "better than he expected." Notably, no forecasts were given for the Touch Dual, but if the original is any indication, we're sure it'll do alright for itself.

[Via mocoNews]

[friendlyner @ Oct 3rd 2007 9:00AM]

Didn't Apple already patent anything you touch? I smell lawsuit...

[Nando @ Oct 3rd 2007 9:04AM]

You mean I can't touch myself because Apple patented touching?!

[Xzavier @ Oct 3rd 2007 9:05AM]

Oh shut up already!!!!!

[tp @ Oct 3rd 2007 9:21AM]

And maybe if you weren't such a useless Apple fanboy, you'd know that the Touch is based off the HTC Elf prototype which was shown off in November, a whole 2 months before your precious iJoke was revealed to the public. If anyone's copied anyone, it's Apple.

[L @ Oct 3rd 2007 9:29AM]

Sarcasm, huh?

[friendlyner @ Oct 3rd 2007 10:32AM]

I suppose I forgot you have to spell out "sarcasm" - kind of takes the fun out. Anyone who thinks I was serious needs their head checked.

[riggs @ Oct 3rd 2007 10:41AM]

sarcasm's really hard to detect on the internet tubes huh?

[david @ Oct 3rd 2007 10:53AM]

@tp. Wow Todd, I read a lot of your posts. You do have a lot of pent up anger! What is with about a half dozen posters who rant and spill their haterade everywhere?

As you know, both the Touch and the iPhone have been in R&D for well over a year so it's doubtful either is a copy.

[Xzavier @ Oct 3rd 2007 9:04AM]

You got the Touch... You got the Poweeer.. YEA!

Stan Bush... The Transformers, 1986!

[beanspants @ Oct 3rd 2007 12:09PM]

Bit of random trivia:
That's also the song that Dirk & the other guy sing in Boogie Nights.

[Meave @ Oct 3rd 2007 9:13AM]

I want one in the States!

[Xzavier @ Oct 3rd 2007 9:17AM]

I was playing around with it... It's pretty cool!
http://www.jr.com/JRProductPage.process?Product=4176133

[shaun @ Oct 3rd 2007 9:23AM]

It's a nice phone, it looks like it would be quite sturdy, but I saw a video review of it and you can only really use the touch features for the first couple of menus then you have to take out the stylus and use it like an ordinary pocket PC, its a shame really because it negates the point of the touch a bit

[vanboy @ Oct 3rd 2007 9:25AM]

Ah... Why will there be lawsuit from Apple? It is lucky enough nobody files lawsuit against Apple already.

Touch screen has been around for years and Motorola was one of the first that made compact touch screen cellular phone popular.

Also, HTC is running Windows Mobile OS.

[rob paek @ Oct 3rd 2007 9:36AM]

I'm not a huge Apple Fanboy or anything, but doesn't it seem a bit ridiculous to compare the two phones in sales figures? The iPhone was launched in the US, population around 300 million whereas Asia has HOW MANY PEOPLE? Plus Europe? I mean China and India alone comprise about 1/3 of the world's population, around 2 BILLION. Then again the annual income is much lower, but who's to say they didn't price it according to the cost of living (or whatever you want to call it)?

It is rather impressive that Apple sold so many iPhones at the $600 price. If the HTC touch was the same price, then it is impressive. I will say this: if I didn't have my BlackBerry Curve, AND if the HTC touch was available in the US with AT&T, then yeah, I would buy one!!

[riggs @ Oct 3rd 2007 10:44AM]

while i understand your logic, you have to count out people that even use technology (let alone this one) also anyone who uses cellphones or pdas in the first place, children and elderly. which lowers your numbers quite a bit.

[rob paek @ Oct 3rd 2007 10:59AM]

true, but how different can the age distribution be? i understand the whole "baby boomers" generation, but more than 2 billion people versus 300 million has got to equal more people that would use a cell phone. my parents are korean, and i have spent many summers there, and it's interesting to note that korean kids (in 2000, the last time i was there) have cell phones. they may not be as nice as an iphone or HTC touch, but they have em at an early age! it's beginning to look a lot like that here too though. either way, selling 800,000 fancy phones is extremely impressive. i mean think how many "artists" and "musicians" don't ever reach platinum sales figures! haha and CDs are MUCH MUCH MUCH cheaper than phones!

[jodeltje @ Oct 3rd 2007 9:37AM]

I borrowed this phone 2 days ago from a friend of mine (who couldn't hold on to it anymore cuz he was so frustrated with the slow interface) and tried it...

For the first 5 minutes it looks nice, but after that...goddamn what a slow piece of shit! The touch interface is just a skin (which is too bloated to run properly)...it works nice, but it's not a great new UI.

The thing lays here next to me...I hate it!

[Vasilis @ Oct 3rd 2007 9:39AM]

I wanted it till I played with it for a bit. The touch and the interface is very cool but it only lasts for a couple menus. After that you go back to stylus driven and extra super ugly Windows Mobile 6 or whatever. So I am giving it a miss. Am looking into the LGU990 at the mom waiting till it is actually released in the uk.

[Snitch @ Oct 3rd 2007 9:39AM]

piece of crap I just wishi could get my money back, can you believe this thing has a 200mhz processor cost more than the real iphone and the UI sucks just look at you tube videos so you can see how lame it is with out taking my world for, besides that's a really low # when you talk about Asia and Europe

[Seung-Hwan @ Oct 3rd 2007 9:52AM]

As a previous owner of an HTC phone with 200 Mhz processor, I want to advise everyone from getting this phone.
It's one thing to say that the Nokia N95 or 8525, or 8925 is better than the iPhone, but anything with a piece of crap 200 Mhz processor should not even be compared with the iPhone.
The whole point of Windows Mobile is 3rd party software anyway- so what's the point if it lacks the horsepower to let you fire up multiple programs, look at calendar, and talk at the same time without a massive lag?

[TMM @ Oct 3rd 2007 11:37AM]

And I don't even think you could say N95 > iPhone.

Have you read any usability tests lately?
You know that the iPhone is targeted mostly for that?
And it kills the HTC and the N95 there with one hand tied behind the back?

Scores are like : 5 iPhone, 3-3.5 HTC, 2 N95.

So don't compare absolutely different concepts and say one is better than the other.

You could say, and I do, that the iPhone reduces it's function to a set that makes sense and does everything it can do so great, that even mum and pap understand it at once.
That's great. Because nobody else seems to care about making the USAGE of a device you will heavily USE better ... but Apple.

Of course, there's is people that are more "techy" and need to ssh into their home PC ... or VNC and check their Bittorrent download-speeds and all this bull....

Go ahead, buy the N95 ... it's nice for that. Horrific to use.
I like it this way, you that. That's alright.

[TMM @ Oct 3rd 2007 11:37AM]

And I don't even think you could say N95 > iPhone.

Have you read any usability tests lately?
You know that the iPhone is targeted mostly for that?
And it kills the HTC and the N95 there with one hand tied behind the back?

Scores are like : 5 iPhone, 3-3.5 HTC, 2 N95.

So don't compare absolutely different concepts and say one is better than the other.

You could say, and I do, that the iPhone reduces it's function to a set that makes sense and does everything it can do so great, that even mum and pap understand it at once.
That's great. Because nobody else seems to care about making the USAGE of a device you will heavily USE better ... but Apple.

Of course, there's is people that are more "techy" and need to ssh into their home PC ... or VNC and check their Bittorrent download-speeds and all this bull....

Go ahead, buy the N95 ... it's nice for that. Horrific to use.
I like it this way, you that. That's alright.

[Argot @ Oct 3rd 2007 12:00PM]

@TMM, yeah you are right, you're no fanboy at all...

[Alan Strangis @ Oct 3rd 2007 12:00PM]

@TMM: ssh/VNC is 'techy crap'?

You're sure right there. I figure I've saved about $1500 in cab fares by having that 'crap' ability over the past 2-3 years.

Not everyone who wants SSH/VNC wants it because it's 'geeky'. Many of us want it because it's, well, USEFUL.

[L @ Oct 3rd 2007 12:47PM]

And that usability "study" was conducted with 10, I repeat, 10(!) people - has to be utterly accurate, right?

I guess we could discuss ad infinitum about whether better usability is more important than better features or not. And in the end, it just comes down to what you expect from a device...

[dan @ Oct 3rd 2007 9:58AM]

Thanks to the Ipod vibe....
and that's for the same price you have a full unlocked with more application phone....

[zed @ Oct 3rd 2007 10:10AM]

Owner of several WM devices.HTC the worst in any case especially their service.Totally uneducated,I ended ordering the spare part and fixing it my self.

[Wish I wish @ Oct 3rd 2007 10:13AM]

it could do a WHOLE LOT better if they made it quad band! For now it's locked to, what, 1 US carrier because of frequency? bah.

[kane @ Oct 3rd 2007 10:18AM]

I think the only major fault in design is the size of the keyboard when typing a message, its nearly impossible to hit the right keys without the stylus. Other functions you can easily use without the stylus, plus the interface is really nice looking and functions well...

Opinions, opinions... I think both the iphone and HTC Touch have advantages over each other, but you should try both until you buy one.

[boe @ Oct 3rd 2007 10:23AM]

I'm not an applefanboy but probably would be if the iphone had full sync with exchange - very important to me. The iPhone has a significantly better screen and processor than most of what HTC churns out in a reasonably form factor. The BT on the iphone works fine which HTC has not managed to do with their WM6 phones. However the iPhone doesn't sync with exchange the way WM6 does and until they do, I'll stick with WM6. Doesn't keep me envious of the vastly superior hardware in the iPhone - come on HTC - can't you backwards engineer something using the iphone hardware but run WM6 - is there technology that much more advanced than yours that you can't take one apart and duplicate it?

[Captain @ Oct 3rd 2007 10:24AM]

Actually, Sprint is about to get this phone in Q4. when it does, the touch interface will be revamped and the processor will be the 400 MHZ Qualcomm processor. It will also have twice the RAM and be 3G CDMA. So, the touch should run more smoothly when its released in the US.

[cameraz @ Oct 3rd 2007 10:51AM]

"All right" is two words.

[marc @ Oct 3rd 2007 12:40PM]

Wow. I have this phone. I gave it a chance....i gave it some more chances. It just plain sucks. Not that I'm blaming HTC exactly, since they didn't make the OS. If i was to write all of my grievances and strange happenings of the OS here, you would laugh pretty hard...you get my point.

Bottom line...way to expensive i think. WM5 smartphone was better(still not great) than this WM6 touchphone.

[Josh L @ Oct 3rd 2007 11:42AM]

That's true. "Alright," however, is not.

[staniel @ Oct 3rd 2007 10:55AM]

It is being launched on Sprint, actually.

[TMM @ Oct 3rd 2007 11:29AM]

I don't know if you really can compare a phone that's been sold world wide, on many carriers and available for under a hundred Euros ... with a phone sold solely in the US, on one carrier, costing 599$ at the beginning and now still 399 ...

It's great for HTC, though ...

Too bad that it's WM6, using an underpowered 200Mhz cpu which even only manages to play choppy little videos - about 15 fps - and has a "touch theme" layered over wm6 - which always when you do something shimmers through ... and only launches some wm6 app, when you start a function ... like adresses ... or video .. or music ...

And too bad the "touch" interface is nothing more than what you can do with some "themes", add ons, that are even available for free.

You can't blame HTC, though.

They're trying hard to do something, without inventing something ... and keeping it cheap.

It's a cheap touch screen phone ... that's all. And now a little overhyped, in my opinion. For that money I'd rather get a BlackBerry. And they aren't that good, either.

[gecono @ Oct 3rd 2007 12:19PM]

Another baseless windows mobile comment. Have you used windows mobile? Are you aware of the thousands of applications you can download *free of charge*? How about the fact that you can run a windows mobile 2003 application on a windows mobile 6?

As a software developer, I like the fact that I can download all the tools I need to develop apps for my windows mobile os. (visual Studio Express is free as is the mobile sdk) Also, there is no need to mod or hack my phone in the slightest. (Although that can be quite fun ;)

BTW - Get a clue

[TMM @ Oct 3rd 2007 12:38PM]

I know all this, ok?

Don't you get it: it doesn't matter.

Only a fraction of cell phones users are interessted in the GAZILLION of aps you can run on your wm devices ... get over it.

It's a badly designed OS ... BAD USABILITY. It's not baseless, but proofen, ok, get over it!

Usability of the famed N95 is ... like ... I can't even describe.

Although it's great what you can do with mobile devices today, only a fraction of it is, as already said, usefull to many people ... AND ... as far as technology has come today the user interfaces are STONE AGE!

It's been the same crap since ages. Nothing has changed, only processor power and extra apps and memory. Stylus ... are you kidding me?

From a technologic view all those devices are a great developement. And now they have enough power to finally focus on better Interface!

And if you'd really understood my comment:
I think it's ok if you think you neeeeed a WM6 device, with a big, ugly plastic case ... either with plastic knobs or a plastic stylus ... clicking on little boxes with an x inside to close an app ... "just like on the desktop" and ssh into your computer ... or play doom or watch TV. It's your decision how you spend your time AND I also said that I UNDERSTAND that people might need it and like it better.

I respect that (!!!).


This does not mean that I agree with this ... and this does not change the FACT that usability is below anything it should be.

The phones on the market today are almost interchangeable, because they are mainly sold through "horsepowers". Anybody can build a phone with camera, symbian or wm, touchscreen with stylus or not, bluetooth and umts ... add some more or less Flash memory and some media player function ... it's nothing special. Most of the components are only build by just a couple of companies anyway.

And you don't get the point: It's time to think about the INTERFACE.
The only way to stand out is the interface!
And not only that: it's time to let the device understand the user and not let the user learn how the device works.

Everything else is only the small print ... because smart phones are getting cheap enough to enter the mass market ... and people must understand how to download music if you want to sell it to them, ok?

Of course your WM6 runs google maps like the iPhone ... and you can rotate the screen as well ... but the QUESTION IS HOW!

Get a clue.

[gecono @ Oct 3rd 2007 3:11PM]

@TMM
You're initial post didn't mention WHY you disliked the windows mobile os, which prompted my reply. I agree usability on any mobile device is of upmost importance.

At work all developers are required to read "The inmates are running the asylum" , check it out you might find it interesting.

Luckily, there is tons of research of work being done on user interface design. Voice interfaces, accelerometer/gyroscope based, touch based, etc. So maybe one day...

Also, I disagree with you that users aren't interested in free applications. What proof can you offer to backup this claim? Maybe a poll could verify your intuition?

Well keep on fighting the ui fight...

[nikster @ Oct 3rd 2007 9:40PM]

What Apple has done is create the first smart phone that's a pleasure to use. It's quite the achievement and quite frankly the others are just standing on the side of the road scratching their heads. That's because they don't innovate.

Microsoft releases WinMobile in order to extend its Win monopoly into an important market segment. Problem is Microsoft is not a company that innovates, second problem even if they did innovate they are not making the hardware.

And hardware manufacturers haven't got a clue about software. How is HTC going to come out and develop an entire new OS from scratch? They can't. They make very nice hardware, but they are stuck with WinMo or the equally crappy Symbian. They don't even have the knowledge or resources to make one of the Linux mobile OSs work properly. Software is hard. Good software is very hard. In addition, in a WinMobile-Symbian world, who makes the best hardware wins. HTC didn't have to do more.

The iPhone changes all that. The whole user interface was carefully designed around the multi-touch feature. Controlling hardware and software gives Apple power to think about completely new ways of doing things. And owning a really great OS doesn't hurt either. Keep in mind that OS X can run on any processor, and is very modular. Try to cram Vista onto a mobile device to see what I mean. It's impossible even for the richest company in the world.

The only thing that can stop Apple from owning the smart phone market is its own hubris.

[noel @ Oct 3rd 2007 11:54AM]

Htc is very good,

[Andrew @ Oct 3rd 2007 3:04PM]

Sprint! Piss, I wanted one, but I want one that works, so I guess I'll wait for a different carrier...

[Nick @ Oct 3rd 2007 3:20PM]

Thanks for the reply. I was aware that the touch will be carried by Sprint later this fall. My comment was more towards "Hey they got all those sales without any U.S. support. I wonrder what those numbers would be at if t-mobile had picked this us from the start."

And to clarify, the phone sprint will be launching is not the original touch. Secs are completely different. Size and interface are the only things that are the same.

http://tccondomap.com

[Jerry @ Oct 3rd 2007 7:15PM]

Yeah, it will be out on Sprint soon. I thought about it but I'm likely gonna get the Mogul. I just like a keypad too much. I dunno why the haterade for Sprint. I guess it depends on where you live but in the city where I live, I always have full service and unlimited data is only $15/month which is way less than any of the others I've priced out. It's the main reason I've stuck with them for so long.

[Roy @ Oct 3rd 2007 11:51PM]

and 10 of those brought are mine..... hTC rocks!