HTC’s Smart handset family of products, which is billed as a rival to Apple’s iPhone, sold 2 million units last year. The company sold nearly 12 million handsets overall last year, roughly a 12% increase over 2006 sales. Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced last week that his company sold more than 4 million iPhones since its launch.

The HTC Touch uses Microsoft Windows Mobile 6 software and is similar to the iPhone. The handset has a touch screen interface that takes up most of the device’s front. The Touch was launched in June of 2007, just weeks before the iPhone was initially launched in the United States. After the American debut, the iPhone was launched in various European and Asian countries.

“The first quarter looks good, it will be a lot better than our first quarter last year,” said Peter Chou, president and CEO of HTC, at a year-end party Friday evening.

“We’ve seen no impact from global economic turmoil. We feel pretty good about this quarter,” said Chou.