Taiwanese mobile manufacturer HTC unveiled its latest handset in Australia today after its simultaneous launch in New York and London yesterday. The device will battle head on with the titans in the smartphone market.

The HTC One is powered by Google's Android, but the company has distinguished it from rivals by using new software to replace icons on the home screen with a personalised stream of news articles, social networking updates, photos and video.

HTC's CEO Peter Chou said in London that the BlinkFeed feature would reinvigorate the smartphone experience. "BlinkFeed transforms your home screen into a live feed of information that matters to you," he said.

The new smartphone from HTC wowed critics and reviewers at the launch events in New York. The new handset offers a 1.7 GHz quad-core processor; Near Field Communication; LTE mobile broadband; stereo speakers; a big, 4.7 inch screen with a 468 pixel-per-inch resolution; and a 4 "ultrapixels" camera. The handset is available in black and white color variants.

HTC released successful smartphones in the past such as HTC One and HTC Desire series.

Informa Telecoms and Media analyst Julian Jest said that the new smartphone would help HTC to differentiate its brand from the typical Android offering. "The introduction of HTC One has come at an ideal time - iPhone sales are slowing down and advanced users are now desperately looking for more innovative devices to satisfy their appetite to explore the new technology horizons," he said.

The handset will be available in March in 80 countries around the world, including in Australia. Vodafone, Telstra, Virgin Mobile and Optus are all listed as carrying the device.

After the March release date, it is expected that the device will be available through resellers as well as online retailers. Thus, be on the lookout for deals and discounts for the new HTC handset.

Watch the first look video of HTC One below.