London - Spain's Telefonica-owned network O2 and HTC have struck a deal to bring the latter's entry-level smartphone HTC Smart to the UK.

HTC Smart will be available in three colours - pink, black and white - and will be focusing on 16-22 years age group consumers who are looking for a touchscreen-based smartphone on a pay as you go or a cheap contract deal.

According to HTC, HTC Smart is a simple entry-level smartphone that just about meets the requirements to be called as a smartphone. It will be affordable and it will be targeting the low-end market across Europe and Asia.

"More and more people are craving advanced mobile phone experiences with email, web browsing and social networking but the cost and complexity often represent a significant obstacle for many. The HTC Smart introduces this functionality in an intuitive phone that is affordable," said Peter Chou, CEO of HTC.

Although, not much is known about HTC Smart's tech specs, it is confirmed that it has a 2.8-inch touchscreen, with QVGA resolution, a 3-megapixel camera, GSM/GPRS/EDGE/3G connectivity, a microSD expansion slot, stereo Bluetooth, and a 3.5mm headset jack. Besides running on Qualcomm's Brew OS (which uses Flash Lite 3.1, reportedly making the platform attractive to all those coders creating Flash apps for the web), HTC Smart also incorporates HTC's own Sense user interface (UI), which has grown quite popular, thanks to its widget-centred customisable homescreens. It also has a memory of 256MB.

"We believe this is a key move in our ability to bring smartphones to a far wider cross section of the population. The benefits of web browsing on the move and ability to experience applications like mobile social networking will now be brought to the mass market and reinforces O2's position as the home of the smartphone," said Matthew Key, CEO of Telefonica, while launching the HTC Smart at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

According to Jon French, HTC's executive director for UK & Ireland, the combination of Qualcomm Brew MP and HTC Sense UI promises to keep price level low while not compromising on user experience. "If you use Android you have to have a certain level of functionality and that is expensive," French said. "Using the Brew platform allows us to reduce the cost, but we can still add our Sense UI on top, so it can do everything the Legend and Desire (new HTC Android-based devices) can do, but at a cheaper price."

"The Smart is the first simple smartphone which is positioned at a lower price point in the market," he added.

HTC Smart's processing speed is, however, just 300MHz, which is not that great. It won't have any WiFi connectivity as well.

According to Steve Alder, vice president of devices at Telefonica Europe, the Smart is set to land in April in the UK, Germany and Ireland and will be available in three colours – black, white and pink. "The typical Smart customer is likely to be young, probably doesn't have a credit card. So this phone really is about breaking down the barrier of affordability. It also takes away the barrier of complexity, by providing a simple customer experience," Adler said.