For a company keen to develop a little brand awareness, HTC doesn't half pick its battles.

Yesterday the Taiwanese firm, best known for producing custom-built devices for operators such as T-Mobile and Orange, announced it was releasing a 'touch screen' phone, placing it on a direct collision course Apple, whose iPhone - which uses similar technology - is due out in a couple of weeks.

And for the first time Orange, one of several networks to carry the phone in the UK, will not have its logo on the device, meaning that HTC, which stands for High Tech Computer Corp - will be the sole brand for the customer to identify with.

Why choose this moment - when a similar product from an 'uberband' is just around the corner - to continue a strategy, begun quietly a year ago, of building up HTC as a household name?

In quiet but insistent tones, Peter Chou, HTC's chief executive, explains: "First, we're not out to steal iPhone's thunder. This product, which we've been working on for several years, differentiates itself by its own innovation."

"Second, if you don't have a brand, it's more difficult to communicate your innovations to the market. With this product, people will hopefully see that the HTC brand is about innovation, quality and leadership. We have to built that awareness in order to increase the value of our brand."

HTC's position as a developer of so-called 'white label' devices is less stable than it was.

Since it was founded 10 years ago with just 10 employees, the company has expanded rapidly to become one of the largest providers Microsoft-based pocket computers and smart phones to companies such as Compaq, Verizon, Cingular, O2 and Vodafone.

It now has nearly 5,000 employees - including 1,245 in research and development, and last year turned over slightly more than $3 billion.

But the pace of growth has slowed markedly in recent times, largely because of increased competition, and a corresponding fall in share price of 41 per cent in the past 12 months has forced the management to rethink the way forward.

"Our strategy is to keep working with operators if they want us to customise products, but increasingly we'll be introducing our own portfolio of products," Mr Chou says.

""Say a competitor comes to the market - how can you expect your customers to keep choosing you if you don't have a differentiation?"

"We won't be putting the HTC brand on every product, but this one is special - it will attract attention. That's why we're doing it."

Last month the company paid $14.5 million to the acquire the assets of Dopod International, a Taiwan-based distributor of smart phones and PDAs that will soon begin selling devices in Asia under the HTC name.

The example of BenQ, another Taiwanese company which began designing products for the likes of Motorola only to stumble when it decided to pursue a similar own-brand strategy will not be far from Mr Chou's mind, however.

What marketing ideas does he have up his sleeve?

"Some companies do things like buy in expensive celebrities like David Beckham, but we're not going to spend an enormous amount of money. We do want people do understand our brand," he replies, declining to be drawn further.

HTC's Touch is largely aimed at business users - though the 'wasabi green' model stakes a strong claim on the consumer turf, so whether it will eat into iPhone's market, which will be high-end consumers, remains unclear.

Mr Chou knows that there's no harm in giving his company, at least in Europe, a six-month headstart, though.

"In the future when people talk about touch phones, they'll say HTC made the first one," he says.

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