Smartphones are the top growing mobile phone category. The Apple iPhone may be at the top of the sales charts, but it has many competitors looking to take that top spot away. One of the smartphones that hoped to steal some of the iPhone thunder was the HTC Touch Pro.

When the Touch Pro first launched it was a Sprint exclusive handset. Verizon Wireless has announced that it is now offering the HTC Touch Pro to its subscribers as well. The features of the handset are the same as the Sprint version with Windows Mobile 6.1 Pro as the operating system. Users get access to Word, Excel, and Outlook on the device.

Last week Sprint launched the HTC Touch Pro at “select national retailers” and said that the device would be available online on November 2nd. True to their word, it’s available. The base retail price of the smartphone is $579.99. There is however an “instant savings” of $180 combined with a $100 mail-in-rebate which will bring the price down to $299.99 (with a 2-year agreement). That’s a whole lot of savings. Don’t forget you can always do it the old fashioned way and find a Sprint store and buy one there.

Sprint finally released the new HTC Touch Pro smartphone. Those who have been waiting can purchase the handset online in the next few days. It will be available in Sprint stores beginning on November 2nd, 2008 for $299.99. That’s after a $100 mail-in rebate. The HTC Touch Pro features a high resolution touchscreen display, sliding QWERTY keyboard, and is expandable to 16GB via SD card, with Video Out to display PowerPoint presentations or media files should you wear a tie and have need of such a thing.