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We've known for longtime that HTC plans to become one of the first companies to deliver smartphones based on Google's Android platform. Today, we've got a better idea of just how many 'gPhone' models the Taiwanese original design manufacturer (ODM) plans on delivering.

HTC CEO Peter Chou recently revealed to analysts that his company would introduce 2-3 Android smartphones in 2008, according to an article in the Chinese-language Commericial Times quoted by Taiwan’s Digitimes. Although Chou didn’t offer an exact launch date, the number of 'gPhones' mentioned shows how committed HTC remains to Google’s new mobile platform.

The same story also mentions how Chou and company plans to introduce a new user interface that improves upon the TouchFlo technology, which essentially grafts an advanced touch interface onto the Windows Mobile platform, used in its popular Touch series this year as well. HTC shipped around 2 million of Touch smartphones in 2008.

TouchFlo is capable of recognizing and responding to the sweep of a finger across a screen and can distinguish between a user’s fingers and a stylus, for example.

While the Touch has solidified HTC's position as a leading Windows Mobile vendor for models with touch screens (Windows Mobile 5 Smartphone or Windows Mobile 6 Standard devices), it has lost ground when it comes to these smartphones without touch input, falling behind both Motorola and Samsung—most likely due of the former's Q series and the latter’s BlackJack models—Digitimes reports, citing internal data from Microsoft.

HTC now accounts for less than 30 percent of this narrow but increasingly popular market segment, a drop of 20 percentage points from the share it once held.

As for Microsoft-run smartphones with touch screens (Pocket PC Phone and Windows Mobile Professional devices), HTC now accounts for an almost 50 percent share, followed by distant second Palm with 10 percent, according to the same Microsoft data.