As we lap up all of the hype about the Apple iPhone, Taiwan based HTC have jumped ahead of Apple and beaten them to the market with a mobile very similar in spec and feel to the iPhone. While company officials claim they have been working on the revolutionary touch screen phone for some time, it bears more than a passing resemblance to the iPhone. Can anyone really compete against the iPhone when it hits the mass market?

Dominated by a system which HTC have christened TouchFLO, users are able to use the touch sensitive screen with a finger of a stylus. The navigation system is also very impressive, with spinning graphics and multiple options leading you to your chosen destination. The HTC Touch also has a 2 mega pixel camera, internet connectivity, Wi-fi and Bluetooth, not to mention an array of the most popular messaging formats.

You have to admire HTC for the speed with which they have been able to get their phone to market, just ahead of the iPhone launch and when the market is very responsive to this particular style of handset. Apple will really have to live up to the hype when the iPhone is finally released, although it has to be said they already have a great following and millions of dollars to fund promotion of the iPhone.