Taiwan's HTC to launch iPhone rival in U.S.

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By Sheena Lee

TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan smartphone maker High Tech Computer Corp. (HTC) said on Tuesday it will launch one of its own-brand touch-screen phones in the United States by the end of the year, as it seeks to compete with Apple’s iPhone.

The company’s second-half U.S. launch for its newly released HTC Touch phone follows a recent release for the model in Britain, said Chief Executive Officer Peter Chou.

The model, a so-called smartphone with cellphone and personal digital assistant (PDA) capabilities, will use touch-screen technology similar to that of the iPhone, set for release in the United States later this month.

"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 (462.5 million pounds), up from a forecast of T$27.3 billion for the current quarter, according to analysts polled by Reuters .....continued below

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HTC, which sells mobile phones under its own name and makes smartphones for the likes of Dell and NTT DoCoMo, is the world’s biggest maker of devices that combine functions on personal digital assistants (PDAs) with mobile communications.

(US$1=T$33.0)