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Verizon Wireless is now offering the XV6900, its version of the popular HTC Touch Windows Mobile smartphone. It is the third carrier-home, after Sprint and Alltel, in the U.S. for HTC's answer to the iPhone.

Unlike the other mobile operators selling the Touch, Verizon's chosen to enable the smartphone's GPS receiver to support location-based services, like its own VZ Navigator offering. Otherwise, the Windows Mobile 6 Professional-run XV6900 is nearly identical to the other Touches.

As with the iPhone, the chief means of interaction between a Touch and a user is through the smartphone's touch screen and the user's fingers through HTC's proprietary TouchFLO technology, which essentially grafts an advanced touch interface onto the Windows Mobile user interface.

TouchFLO is capable of recognizing and responding to the sweep of a finger across a screen, for instance. Sweep your fingers across the display to launch an animated, three-dimensional interface comprising three screens: Contacts, Media and Applications. It is even supposed to be intelligent enough to distinguish between finger and stylus input, responding accordingly.

Specifications for the XV6900, which measures 4.0 x 2.4 x 0.6 inches and weighs 4.0 ounces, include a 2 megapixel camera, a microSDHC slot, 128MB of RAM, 256MB of ROM, and a 1100 mAH battery for 3.5 hours talk or 10 days of standby-time on a single charge. An extended battery, 1880 mAH battery, is available for 6 hours of talk and 17 days of stand-by-time.

The XV6900 goes for $300 with a two-year contract and after a discount.

While HTC hasn't posted the iPhone's numbers with the touch (who has?), the Touch's been a very popular and important edition to the OEM’s Windows Mobile lineup. Last year alone, HTC moved a couple million of them, actually.

Overall, HTC shipped 11.2 million smartphones in 2007, about a 12 percent increase from 2006. It also grew revenue by 12 percentage points.

Meanwhile, HTC's got another Touch model headed for the U.S. Called the Touch Dual, this version sports a 20-key keyboard that slides out from underneath the display. The idea is to make it easier to input text for working on documents as well as sending SMS and e-mail messages.

It won't be available directly from any carriers when it ships. Rather, HTC will sell it unlocked (it's a quad-band GSM phone) through Best Buy and its own retail site, for an as-of-yet undisclosed price.

That means if you're a customer of a GSM carrier like AT&T (the only American operator with support for GSM-style 3G and 3.5G) and T-Mobile, all you'll need to do to use the Touch Dual is pop in your SIM card.

Significantly, the Touch Dual will be one of the first devices run Microsoft's recently announced upgrade to Windows Mobile upgrade, version 6.1.