HTC today announced the Australian release of the HTC Touch Diamond. The phone, which Chen seems to think is a little bit slow from his early hands-on, will be launched either late July or early August on Telstra.

The phone will cost $999 outright or free on an $80 plan. It's also quite customised for the Telstra network, with inbuilt Sensis mapping, Trading Post and search functionality. It also features a 7.2Mbps HSPA chipset inside, which takes advantage of Telstra's fast NextG network. CEO Peter Chou even admitted that it was the fastest phone they'd ever produced.

Telstra have got the Diamond exclusively for three months, although there's no word on who'll pick it up after that. I also managed to catch a glimpse of the Touch Pro version with a slide-out qwerty keypad, and although they were quiet on specifics, it's looking at a Q4 launch down here.

I also managed to score some one-on-one time with CEO Peter Chou, which I'll be sorting through over the next couple of days. Stay tuned for more...

[HTC]

 

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