Following similar collaborations with Japanese telecom operators NTT DoCoMo and SoftBank, Taiwanese mobile phone manufacturer HTC (High Tech Computer) announced on September 11 that it has reached an agreement with another Japanese operator KDDI for Smartphone sales in Japan, Asahi Shimbun reported on September 12. The HTC Smartphone for KDDI, codenamed E30HT, is slated for commercialization in Japan around spring 2009. Further details of the agreement have not been disclosed yet.

Meanwhile, Japanese mobile operator EMobile, the mobile subsidiary of eAccess, also announced a plan to sell HTC's Touch Diamond Smartphone, which is slated to hit the Japanese market in October 2008, according to a Reuters report. In the Japanese market, the HTC Touch Diamond is expected to enter into direct competition with the Apple iPhone launched by SoftBank and RIM's BlackBerry launched by NTT DoCoMo.