About 2 million of HTC’s Touch smartphone sold during its time on the market in 2007, the company announced today. The touchscreen device achieved the figure after beginning sales first in Europe and expanding later to North America during the fall. These sales were some of the strongest yet for any individual phone from the line and pushed sales up to 11.8 million total, according to HTC. The year’s past results represent a 12 percent increase over the year before.

The first quarter of this year also promises far better results than in 2006, the company adds.

While strong, the two-million mark equals just half the results of its most immediate rival, Apple’s iPhone. Over four million iPhones were sold in roughly the same timeframe as the HTC device despite the former shipping in late June and being largely confined to the US, with European shipments starting only within the last two months of the year. Apple’s cellphone has also typically sold at higher prices, costing $399 with a two-year contract versus $250 for the HTC Touch at Sprint.

Taiwan-based HTC has not commented on the Apple results but has hoped to capitalize on the HTC Touch’s relative similarity by introducing variants since the debut of the Touch last spring, including the Touch Cruise with a jog wheel and the Touch DUAL, which adds a slide-out keypad to the basic Touch design.