By Patrick Avenell

SYDNEY, NSW: HTC has this afternoon released three new mobile phone handsets in Australia. The new models all run on Windows Mobile operating system, as opposed to Google Android, a format HTC supported in its Magic and Dream releases.

First of these releases is the HTC Snap, which bears a striking similarity to the Blackberry form factor. This model is 12-millimetres thin and has a matt black backing. A full QWERTY keyboard supports swift message and email typing and the battery has an advertised cycle time of 8.5 hours. This model will be released exclusively through Telstra.

A successor to the HTC Touch Diamond, which is reported to have sold two million units worldwide, is the Touch Diamond2. This model has a 3.2-inch high resolution widescreen touchscreen and is 13.7-millimetres thick. This model is targeted at a broad consumer base, and includes the new touch sensitive zoom for fast interaction with web pages, emails, photos and documents. This model is available at release through Optus.

Designed and marketed for business professionals, the HTC Touch Pro2 has a high-resolution 3.6-inch widescreen, 1500mAh battery and a slide-out fully QWERTY keyboard for message and email writing. Additionally, when the keyboard is exposed through horizontal sliding, the screen can then be elevated to around 45 degrees to create a miniature replica of a notebook computer. This model is available through Telstra.

Prices for these three models will be available via the carriers soon.