HTC's Challenger to the iPhone Throne

HTC Corp. unveiled its new flagship phone, the Touch Diamond, at a London press conference this morning.

The newly designed Touch Diamond handset runs on the latest version of Microsoft's(MSFT) Windows Mobile platform. It looks compact in size and has HTC's second-generation touch-screen technology, which is called TouchFLO 3D.

HTC claims it has been able to take a "great leap forward" in touch-screen innovation with the introduction of TouchFLO 3D, saying it provides animated access to people, messaging, email, photos, music, weather and more.

The Touch Diamond is a GSM/GPRS/EDGE world phone, and operates on the high speed, HSDPA 7.2 Mbps and HSUPA wireless data networks -- capable of delivering fast downloads and a speedy mobile Web experience.

HTC's Touch Diamond Could Ring iPhone's Bell

The new phone also boasts a customized mobile Web browser that "enables easy viewing and effortless navigation of Web sites in the way they were designed."

HTC says users can zoom and navigate Web sites with one hand (a dig at the Apple(AAPL) iPhone's two-handed approach) and automatically view optimized content that has been created to fit the display (especially YouTube and Google(GOOG) Maps).

The 2.8-inch display provides near-print quality viewing. The built-in camera (the press release didn't say how many megapixels) includes an optical auto-focus lens.

The HTC Touch Diamond will be available to customers across all major European carriers in June. It will be available later this quarter in Asia and the Middle East. The North American and Latin American versions of the Touch Diamond will be available in the second half of this year.