HTC is believed to have won the contract to manufacture the upcoming Windows Mobile-based version of Palm's Treo smart phone, but the device's release is some way off.

So suggests a report in the Chinese-language newspaper the Commercial Times, DigiTimes reports.

Separately, HTC yesterday said its July sales jumped 157.6 per cent year on year.

HTC is perhaps best known for its own-design Windows Mobile-based smart phones and PDA-style communicators, produced on behalf of mobile networks like Orange, T-Mobile, O2 and Vodafone, and handset vendors i-mate, Dopod and QTek.

However, HTC also undertakes contract manufacturing on behalf of a number of partners, and was said in September 2004 to be ramping up production of Palm's Palm OS-based Treo 650.

If that's the case - neither firm will confirm it - then HTC is the logical choice for the Windows Mobile-based Treo, believed to be dubbed the Treo 670, apparently seen in a series of videos here. HTC may even have lent some Windows Mobile development expertise to Palm's design team.

Indeed, the Commercial Times reports indicates that HTC may well have designed the 670 itself, working to the parameters of the standard Treo feature-set and case design.

HTC is certainly on the up. Yesterday, it reported July sales of TWD5.25bn ($164.64m), up 157.6 per cent on July 2004's total, TWD2.04bn ($63.94m), and up fractionally on June 2005's TWD5.23bn ($163.98). Sales for the calendar year to date total TWD33.93bn ($1.06bn), up 99.4 per cent on the same seven-month period last year. ®