HTC's "Desire" brand re-styles US Android phones for Europe, Asia

Competing with the headline-stealing Nokia World 2010 in London today, mobile phone maker HTC held a press conference to announce two new Android smartphones, the Desire HD and Desire Z.

These new phones are interesting because they reveal a common theme to HTC's "Desire" label: they are, in effect, different versions of already-released HTC phones.

The original HTC Desire was very similar to the Google Nexus One, except it has HTC's Sense UI, a slightly retooled chassis, and was targeted primarily at the European market.

The new Desire models keep up with this trend, but cleave even tighter to the design of the original devices. The Desire Z is a QWERTY slider that is nearly identical to the T-Mobile G2. It has the same 800MHz Qualcomm processor, same HSPA+ compatibility, and same 802.11n Wi-Fi compatibility. The Desire Z, however, comes with HTC's Sense UI instead of the stock Google Android experience on the G2.

The Desire HD is a 4.3" LCD touchphone which looks to be a clone of the EVO 4G. It has the same 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, and the same dual-LED flash 8 megapixel camera with 720p video capability. Instead of WiMAX, though, the Desire HD is equipped with HSPA+, the kickstand built into the EVO has been removed, and the Sense UI found on the EVO will be replaced by the newest version of Sense, compatible with the soon-to-be-launched HTCSense.com.

"We're excited to be taking the HTC Sense experience beyond the phone to a whole new level with a series of connected HTC services we call HTCSense.com," said Peter Chou, CEO of HTC Corp, in a statement Wednesday. "Our customers will value the holistic approach we're taking to enhance their mobile experience. This customer-first philosophy has resonated with people buying HTC phones and this drives us to continue introducing new innovative smartphones like the HTC Desire HD and HTC Desire Z."

Both devices are expected to launch in Europe and Asia this fall.