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At CTIA Wireless, Verizon Wireless officially announced it would became the third carrier-home, after Sprint and Alltel, in the U.S. for HTC's answer to the iPhone, the Touch. Instead of calling the Touch by its given name, Verizon's chosen to go with a more staid moniker for the smartphone, the XV6900.

Since last week, we've known Verizon would ship the XV6900 this month. We just didn't know exactly when, until now. According to a tip received by engadget, the XV6900 will become available online on April 16th and at retail on store shelves a couple of weeks later, on April 30th.

It'll go for $350 with a two-year contract and after a $50 mail-in rebate.

Unlike the other carriers selling the Touch, Verizon's chosen to enable the Touch’s GPS receiver to support its VZ Navigator service.

Otherwise, the Windows Mobile 6-run XV6900 is nearly identical to the other Touches, with its 2 megapixel camera and similar - if not exactly the same – specifications.

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.

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. Why last year alone, HTC moved a couple million of them.