Apple’s iPhone, which is due out in the US at the end of June, was dealt a blow today by HTC, the Taiwanese manufacturer, which released a phone using remarkably similar technology.

Steve Jobs, Apple's chief executive, has emphasised the innovative iPhone's screen, which allows the user to drag a finger across it to navigate. His thunder was at least partly stolen today by HTC, whose phone can be controlled in the same way.

Peter Chou, HTC’s chief executive, denied that its new model, the HTC Touch, was an "iPhone spoiler", but the timing of the launch – just six months before the iPhone is due out in Europe – was viewed by many as a snub to its Californian rival.

"This is an inflection point in mobile phone history," John Wang, chief marketing officer for HTC, said at an event in London. "In ten years we'll look back at 2007 as the year when the push button-centric experience transitioned to touch-centric."

"TouchFLO" – the name HTC gives technology which enables the owner to swipe up, down, and diagonally across the screen to navigate – “will be as important for phones as the mouse was for the computer screen," he added.

Several consumer phones, such as LG Prada, have already incorporated touch screens, but HTC's and Apple's devices are the first that will respond to a finger being dragged across the screen surface.

The phone, which goes on sale in the UK this week, is a sleeker, more compact version of the PDA-style devices that the company has previously released under the O2 and Orange brand, such as the XDA and the SPV.

It runs Windows Mobile 6, meaning that it is still largely aimed at users who want to be able to check e-mail on the move, but at 13.9mm thick it is more pocket-friendly than its predecessors and will also attract consumers after a more sophisticated interface.

On-screen typing remains a bit clunky. Despite having a 2.8-inch screen, the "virtual" keyboard is tiny, meaning that you need the wand, which will be familiar to previous HTC device users, to type with any speed.

The touch-screen technology is quite intuitive, however, enabling you to scroll through contacts or across a web page with large swipes of your fingertips rather than up/down, left/right navigation. There are additional useful features, too, such as a page for your most frequently rung contacts – your "inner circle of friends", as HTC calls it – and the ability to trim a song in the media player for use as a ring tone.

It's not 3G, nor is there GPS, but all the other typical features of a smart phone, including a two megapixel camera, are there.

Mr Chou said that the phone was aimed at the "mid- to high-end" users, suggesting that it will not overlap completely with iPhone, but the €449 (£305) price tag is certainly comparable with Apple's. Orange and T-Mobile are expected to announce contract packages in the next few days, which would be available by the end of June.

The more stylish appearance of the device in comparison with HTC's previous products indicates an attempt to target affluent consumers.

"The point about these devices is people speak about them and who makes them,” Mr Wang said. “They're items of fashion. We want to be known as a company who makes fashionable phones."

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