Australian HTC Touch Diamond launch.. but what about the elephant in the room!?!??!

I attended the HTC Touch Diamond launch in Australia yesterday and was impressed that one device could pull so many Australian press and Bloggers. The much touted iPhone killer was impressively demonstrated during the presentation, but the timing of their release of the product so near to the Apple 3G iPhone was a pachyderm sized headache for the HTC launch crew during the day.

After the demonstration the Q&A session got into full swing except for the occasional stupid question like Peter Blasina of Channel 7 asking why it didn’t have GPS after they had just demonstrated it, most questions fell into a pattern of comparison between the HTC product and the upcoming 3G iPhone.

It was blatantly obvious that the HTC, Telstra & Microsoft reps had not been prepared properly for dealing with iPhone questions. For instance, one poignant question to the Telstra rep, Ross Fielding, queried how Telstra would position the HTC Touch Diamond alongside the Apple iPhone, his response was “We are not here to talk about the iPhone”. Fielding clearly failed to address the issue by choosing to dismiss a very important question. How do you expect users to understand the benefits of an iPhone comparable device without constructively positioning your product against the competition.

HTC’s failure with this device in the Australian market may come down to ignoring the bleeding obvious. The Apple iPhone has a massive marketing engine behind it especially with the three major Telcos all selling the device. As a competitor you must position yourself clearly to potential customers so they understand why they should choose your product over others.

Very sorry to hear that the HTC Touch Diamond will only be available via Telstra, which doesn’t leave consumers choice of carrier.

HTC Australia Touch Diamond site

Posted By Shane Williamson