Both HTC and Apple have recently announced new full touchscreen high-end mobile devices, and it seems that the Taiwanese company and the Cupertino-based American one will be, from now on, in a competition fiercer than ever.

HTC has just rolled out its Touch Diamond Pocket PC, while Apple has announced the upcoming availability of iPhone 3G, the second-generation iPhone, that will become available for purchase in 23 global markets, starting July 11.

HTC's president, Mr. Peter Chou, says that the release of Apple's new handset cannot affect the sales of his company's devices (the Touch Diamond included), as quoted by DigiTimes.

HTC's Touch Diamond and Apple's iPhone 3G target about the same mobile users category, being slim and fashionable touchscreen devices with lots of high-end features. Despite the apparently affordable price of the iPhone 3G, said to be offered from only 199 USD (around 130 Euros), HTC believes that all of its products will still be sold at about the same rate as if the new iPhone had not been released. Moreover, while the iPhone 3G will have the above-mentioned price only with a contract agreement for at least one year, the Touch Diamond can come even for free under the same conditions (depending on the operator that offers the handset and the data plan the users choose).

When compared from the technical point of view, HTC Touch Diamond and the iPhone 3G have both weak and strong points. For example, the display of iPhone 3G is larger, having 3.5 inches (as opposed to Diamond's 2.8-inch one), it has more colors (16 million, while only 65,000 are supported by HTC's handset), but it has an inferior pixel resolution: 320 x 480 pixels, as opposed to 480 x 640 pixels found on the screen of Touch Diamond. As far as the built-in memory is concerned, the new iPhone is superior, as it comes in an 8GB and a 16GB version, while Touch Diamond only offers 4GB of internal memory. However, the Diamond has a better photo camera that features 3.15 Megapixels, auto focus and video recording, while the camera packed in iPhone 3G cannot record video, doesn't have auto focus and only features 2 Megapixels.

In the end, probably the most important difference between HTC Touch Diamond and iPhone 3G is that the former runs on Windows Mobile 6.1 while the latter has a Mac OS X interface.

Both Apple and HTC have announced that they intend to sell (at least) several millions of their new touchscreen handsets. Well, I think the companies will achieve their goals, as the "touchscreen market" is continuously growing and more mobile users are considering buying themselves touch-enabled devices.