Do you remember this phone that ushered us into the age of industrial designs?

When it comes to smartphone designs, HTC has been one of the forerunners early on prior to the smartphone boom we've seen post iPhone. With every new announcement, it seemed as though the Taiwanese based company was unstoppable with its superb line of smartphones, offering consumers unmatchable phones that were consistently regarded as ahead of their time. HTC's brand recognition, was without a doubt, only beginning to rise during the late 2000s.

Enter the HTC Touch Diamond, released in the summer of 2008 to much acclaim for its then cutting-edge specs and jaw dropping design. Compared to the HTC Touch before it, the HTC Touch Diamond established this new notion of industrial designs – setting the foundation for future devices that came after it! Prior to it, smartphone designs were relatively bland, often featuring the same drab grey colored plastic bodies that were akin to PC designs of the 90s. Honestly, it's hard to imagine that it's been a decade already since its run, so it's amazing that its design can still hold up today!



Beyond the design, which was notable for its hard lines, compact size, gunmetal frame, and peculiar diamond faceted rear design, the HTC Touch Diamond managed to enhance the antiquated look of Microsoft's Windows Mobile operating system – thanks to the beautifully designed TouchFLO 3D interface seen running for the very first time on it. Rather than being the usual stripped-down Windows experience on a smartphone, HTCs' TouchFLO 3D offered an almost futuristic look and feel with its interface, evident in its neat animations, transitions, and dynamic home screen widgets! Most people familiar with the platform, in fact, couldn't believe it was indeed running Windows Mobile, just because of TouchFLO 3D's foreign style.

Compared to other contemporary smartphones, the HTC Touch Diamond was a testament to how it was so ahead for its time, by emphasizing the need for a meticulously designed smartphone paired with a more modern looking interface. In the pantheon of Windows Mobile smartphones, the HTC Touch Diamond truly set the bar high for everything else after it. Unfortunately, though, it came at the time when Apple released its first-generation iPhone. Being the revolutionary device it was, the iPhone made it difficult for the HTC Touch Diamond to be a convincing option solely because it was still leveraging Microsoft's aging mobile platform.



Nevertheless, the smartphone still proved to be a big hit amongst fans and consumers, as the popularity and success of the phone eventually spurred a successor. Looking back at it now, the HTC Touch Diamond was a truly remarkable phone that was ahead of its time, helping to not only establish HTC's growing brand as a premier player in the mobile space, but also helping to usher us into the age of astounding industrial designs. Since then, the company has repeatedly wowed us with several smartphones with timeless signature designs – including its line of Android smartphones. Still, all of those devices can be trace back their lineage to the one and only HTC Touch Diamond.