In light of Taiwanese smartphone manufacturer HTC launching its new products on the same day as the London-based Nokia World event, Nokia has retaliated with a few tactics of its own, reported The Age.

HTC has just launched its Desire HD, an update to the Desire launched earlier in 2010, and highly touted to be strong competition for the iPhone 4. HTC sent buses to the Nokia World event to take journalists to its Desire press event, to which Nokia responded by releasing a HTC press conference survival kit.

According to theage.com.au, the kit contained a HTC sandwich (“ham, tomato and cheese – not the most exciting sandwich”), an energy bar (“in case you need a boost”), a Nokia foam finger (“to use during the Q and A”), a pen and notepad (“for doodling”) and ear plugs and an eye mask (“in case you feel snoozy”).

Nokia sent their own supporters to the HTC event holding red Nokia balloons which said “I know where I’m going with Nokia’s Ovi Maps.”

Nokia responded to public criticism of its tactics on its Twitter page with the statement: “HTC drives buses up to our front door to hijack #nokiaworld – so we give out red balloons plus lunch…and u call us dirty!? LOL!”

HTC Australia’s managing director Anthony Petts told The Age that the stunt highlighted that Nokia saw HTC as a serious competitor. Thats in some ways an accolade that were being taken so seriously. The feedback that I saw was that it [the stunt] actually probably backfired.

The HD Desire will be on sale in Australia before the end of 2010, with prices still to be released.

At the aforementioned event Nokia unveiled three new handset models, the C6, C7 and E7.