Photo: HTC

In technology, it’s major online and software compares that get all the headlines. Facebook, Google, Foursquare, Spotify, and so. With only one hardware company absolutely killing it: Apple. You can now add HTC to that list, with the company reporting better than expected sales, showcasing massive year-on-year growth.

Great releases = great sales

Year-on-year revenues for the first two quarters have grown to £2 billion compared to £1.4 billion last year. That’s a remarkable sales increase off the back of focusing on emerging markets, as well as finally getting a foothold in the previously HTC-cold US market through its partnership with Google Android. This roundly beat analyst’s predictions, even though HTC pretty much blew the competition out of the water in Q1, too.

Photo: HTC

And how has HTC done this? Well, how else other than by releasing a string of remarkable phones in a short space of time? Within the last six months alone, the Taiwanese firm has released MCN favourites the HTC Desire and the HTC Legend, as well as the top-selling (yet critically disappointing) HTC EVO 4G exclusively in North America. Add to that list the budget HTC Wildfire, HTC Mini HD2 and some other HTC handsets and it soon becomes evident why the Taiwanese company is leaving most everybody else in their dust.

Should Google thank HTC, or the other way around?

And the bulk of these HTC handsets sales come from the Google Android line of HTC phones, indicating HTC should be very grateful to Google for the partnership. Or should Google thank HTC for validating the software capability of Google Android by marrying it with great hardware? Who is to say who is to thank, but considering HTC built the Google-branded Nexus One, too, it is safe to say the two companies have a very close mutually beneficial relationship. Sort of like Google and Apple back in the day, but that’s another story. One can’t help wonder how things will change between Google Android and HTC handsets once Windows Phone 7 Series releases.

So fess up! Have you contributed to HTC’s growing money pile in the past six months and, if yes, which HTC handsets did you purchase and how have you found them to handle? Let us know in the comments section.

Photo: HTC

Technology is such a litigious industry, it’s actually quite sad. Nonetheless, HTC have responded to Apple with a ‘Have at me?! No have at you, buddy!’ countersuit.

Five patents infringed

The Taiwanese company alleges the iPhone and iPad infringes five patents. None of the alleged infrigements have anything to do with touch technology, but rather speak to comparatively boring topics likes power management and how the phone accesses its directory (no, seriously).

The countersuit

This lawsuit comes on the heels of Apple suing HTC. While HTC’s motives are to have some defense against Apple’s advances, Apple’s motives are widely believed to be Google Android-related, making HTC, in effect, a mere means to an end.

Alas, with this suit, that might change, still.

About that Android threat

Photo: Apple

Though Apple have since refuted the claims, a recent NPD report indicated that Google Android phone sales exceeded those of the iPhone in North America for the first time ever. Admittedly, there are a whole bunch of handset manufacturers, ranging from Samsung to HTC and LG who make Google Android phones, while Apple is the only manufacturer of iPhone OS-powered smartphones.

Great phones, time wasted

HTC have been kicking out some of the most exciting smartphones in the entire industry this last 12 months, most notably with the HTC Legend and HTC Desire. Apple, on the other hand, have had the hottest selling smartphone in the world, a well-received tablet computer and is prepping the release of its next phone. One just feels the resources dedicated to suing each other could be better spent kicking out better phones or dedicating those funds to further R&D.

Nevertheless, Apple now finds itself at the centre of two lawsuits with major mobile phone manufacturers – Nokia and HTC, both. Imagine if those two companies formed an alliance against their common enemy.

Photo: HTC

Word has it HTC has dropped it’s bid to acquire Palm, passing on both the company’s hardware and webOS mobile operating system products.

Not enough synergy

Reportedly, the reason for dropping the bid is that, having looked at Palm’s financials, technology and doing general due diligence, HTC did not find enough synergy between the two companies.

Lenovo mobile a possibility?

This leaves fast-growing Chinese computing company Lenovo as the last known high profile buyer. Lenovo, who have in the last three years skyrocketed in terms of computer sales, have a huge market presence in Asia, Africa and Europe, but have struggled to crack the US market to date. The thinking on the part of Lenovo, according to those close to the deal, is that buying Palm would give them a good distribution channel as well as an established, although ailing, brand name in America.

£780 million

Photo: Palm

It is rumoured £780 million is Palm’s sale price. However, given how its brands are currently struggling, and additional due diligence may reveal the company’s product roadmap is less than exciting, nor is it’s brand name that big of a deal anymore, that valuation may drop still.

webOS the cherry on top

The big deal with Palm is, of course, its webOS mobile operating system. When HTC was still the forerunner in acquiring Palm, many analysts predicted this could mean HTC would begin adopting an iPhone-esque and BlackBerry-esque approach to mobile phones by having software and hardware developed in-house, as opposed to using WinMo and Google’s Android as its software framework.

Lenovo, in addition to its potential new-found phone business, could quite possibly adapt webOS as an alternative operating system for the company’s inevitable move into contemporary tablets, giving it both a new market with something different, as well as a platform for investing significant resources into Palm’s most promising asset.

Photo: HTC

We write about HTC handsets quite often here, and not because of any bias to the company, but because HTC’s products for the last 12 months have been as good as any other smartphone maker has ever released – yes, even Apple and its iPhone. And the company’s newly released quarterly results confirm what we’ve long suspected, and what the company is due – HTC smartphones are being hugely successful, particularly due to the company’s partnership with Google Android.

The numbers game

HTC’s Q1 revenue was $1.19 billion (£770 million), a 19.3 per cent increase over 2009’s Q1 results. Profit amounted to $158 million (£102 million), up $4 million from the year prior, making HTC the fourth largest smartphone maker, behind Nokia, Apple and Research in Motion (Blackberry), with a market share of about six per cent.

The handsets

Photo: HTC

Two things drive these sales. The first of which is the quality of the HTC smartphones, with HTC releasing the HTC Desire, HTC Legend, HTC Hero and HTC HD2 in the last 12 months, with what we believe to be the world’s most powerful phone (on specs, at least), the HTC EVO 4, scheduled for release soon.

The Google Android factor

Photo: HTC

The second sales driver is Google Android. Much of HTC’s growth, particularly in the US, has been on the back of Google Android. While HTC handsets have been amazing for years, their previous operating system of choice, Windows Mobile, was letting the company down considerably in terms of user interface and capabilities. Considering HTC has been running Google Android for a little over two years, the fact that seven of their top 15 phones are powered by that operating system is remarkable.

And, not to give too much credit to Google for HTC’s success, it’s arguable that Android would not be what it is without HTC handsets and the company’s support, with reports that HTC smartphones account for 61 per cent of the Android market. So, in saying it’s all Google would be unfair to HTC smartphones and their unbelievable quality. It’s no wonder Apple is suing HTC to get at Google since they’re clearly turning up the heat.

Photo: Apple

The iPhone is currently Apple’s talisman in its aspirations of remaining the world’s largest mobile devices company, with recent rumours indicating two new iPhones may be coming, one of which will be a CDMA Verizon iPhone.

AT&T monopoly to end?

Many countries have the iPhone on one carrier only, making whichever carrier has it something of a monopoly. In the US, where AT&T has been the exclusive carrier since 2007, this has brought much criticism Apple’s way since its user base believes AT&T delivers substandard service.

Photo: Apple

To this effect, the on-again off-again rumour that there will be a Verizon iPhone is back in the air again. Verizon, which uses the CDMA communications format – as opposed to GSM – cannot carry the iPhone in its current state and would need an adapted version to do so. But what would make it very worthwhile for Apple to launch this other iPhone on Verizon – making it available to a host of other CDMA carriers – is that the company has 91 million users in its subscriber base.

Rollout

The usual Apple trend of releasing a new GSM iPhone at the beginning of summer – June – is expected to continue, with the reportedly thinner and faster iPhone 4G handset to launch. AT&T’s relationship with Apple has been crucial for the carrier, with iPhone sales explosions contributing almost exclusively to its quarterly growth.

Feeling the heat

Photo: HTC

With Apple recently suing HTC – which on all accounts is actually an attack on Google – and Google Android handsets enjoying a lot of press and positive publicity, it seems as if Apple is fortifying its lead, as well as living in fear. Add that to the fact that HTC’s recent handsets have been phenomenal, and Microsoft’s Windows 7 looks great, too, the unchallenged dominance of the iPhone is certainly coming to an end, so it may make sense for the oft-rumoured Verizon iPhone to finally surface.

Tags for this article: iPhone, htc

The HTC Magic Google G2 phone is perhaps the ultimate embodiment of snazzy phones. It is the latest addition to the line of android touch screen smart phones and the most ironical thing is that it has not yet been made available for sale in the United States. The phone has earned the name HTC Magic in the international market and comes in a spectacular white case. The screen size is 3.2 inches and the pixel resolution provided by the device is 320 x 480 pixels. The absence of a huge keyword comes as a blessing as a lot of weight gets knocked off. The Android software enhances performance and the compatible operating system helps in installing additional software like games and applications.

Google applications such as G Mail, Google Calendar, Google Talk and Google Search will be available in abundance. Mapping is also hassle free with the help of the GPS facility and locating places will become extremely straightforward. The camera that has been pre installed in the HTC Magic is a 3.2 Mega Pixel with enabled auto focus. The video recording facility is alluring and also enables users to post videos on websites like MetaCafe and YouTube. All sorts of media files including audio and video are playable in the HTC Magic Google G2. Files like MP4 and 3 GP that are usually not compatible with general mobile phones show thorough compatibility with this one. Buy the HTC Magic Google G2 for experiencing the very thrill of owning a HTC phone. Your happiness will see no boundaries after you purchase the phone and marvel in its features.

HTC Touch Pro 2 is the latest upgrade of the very popular HTC Touch Pro smartphone. The main attraction of this version of Touch Pro is its awesome call conferencing capabilities. This one takes communication seriously and has been optimised for delivering undisrupted call conferences. Most of the other HTC smartphones put more emphasis on other forms of conversations such as e-mail, SMS, MMS etc. but fail to host a smooth call conference. For the Touch Pro 2 calls and e-mails are on the same level.

It makes sure that there is no voice disruption during a conference. It receives and sends high quality voice signals by eliminating any jitter in the network using its unique Straight Talk technology that puts crystal-clear sound quality and voice reception at the core of its design. The HTC Touch Pro 2 has got an exceptional noise-cancelling microphone and loudspeaker along with an intuitive user interface that is specially designed to make it easy to initiate and mange a conference.

Coming to the rest of the features, the Touch Pro 2 offers 3.6 inches (480 x 800) TouchFLO 3D display. In addition to this you will find all the standard functions that were in Touch Pro such as Bluetooth, support for both 2G and 3G networks, Bluetooth, USB, accelerometer, handwriting recognition, Java, WLAN, EDGE, GPRS etc. The Touch Pro 2 also sports a sliding QWERTY key pad that adds to its style and appeal.

Tags for this article: touch, smartphone, htc

The Touch Diamond 2 is the new highest member of the Touch Diamond Family. Like the original HTC Touch Diamond the Touch Diamond too offers awesome mobility, mind blowing features and a new way to communicate on the go. One unique feature in this edition of Touch Diamond is its capability to store all the call details with a particular contact. It keeps track of all the conversations with different contacts in an expandable tree type hierarchy. The Touch Diamond 2 records all types of conversations for future reference.

It focuses on the people engaged in the conversation and thus it’s a purely customer oriented phone. If compared to the previous HTC Touch Diamond, the Touch Diamond 2 is more sophisticated, elegant and satisfying. Although it derives most of its features from its predecessor only the overall performance is enhanced. The new HTC Touch Diamond2’s appearance is essentially the same as its predecessor, but this time HTC is offering a stretched display in the same old compact form factor.

Like its predecessor, the HTC smartphone can run on both 2G and 3G networks. The multi-touch operation is powered via same TouchFLO 3D finger swipe navigation technology that gives the user total control over touch functions. Apart from this you will find all the other much needed options including Bluetooth, USB, Accelerometer, Audio/Video player, Pocket Office, 5 mega pixel autofocus camera and much more. The processing core of the Touch Diamond 2 consists of a Qualcomm MSM7200A 528 MHz CPU which is backed by 288 MB RAM and 512 MB ROM.

HTC recently announced that it will make use of the powerful Nvidia Tegra APX processors in its new smartphones that are going to be launched in the second half of 2009. The Nvidia Tegra system-on-chip (SoC) is a hi-fi processor that was made by Nvidia, the world’s leading developer of top notch visual computing technologies. Tegra was developed in mid 2008 with a vision to offer awesome graphics processing features in HTC smartphones as well.

The Tegra processor packs the whole system memory, CPU and GPU in a single chip and features vary tiny form factor. This will help the HTC a lot in maintaining its smartphone’s aesthetic quality. The Nvidia Tegra will definitely take the smartphone computing to a much advanced level. Now the smartphones will produce jaw dropping visuals, fluid animations and high tech gaming effects right on your palm. This means we will start to see more advanced games and applications, like with the iPhone, on future generations of models like the HTC Touch HD. The Tegra 600 series SoC offers ARM11 CPU, GeForce graphics with programmable pixel shader and programmable vertex shader support, build-in low-power DDR memory controller, NAND flash memory controller, high-definition video processor supporting MPEG 4, H.264, VC-1/WMV9 decoding, H.264 and MPEG4 encoding. Apart from this the chip is optimised for dual displays, large MP cameras, USB file transfer, PATA drives and high definition displays.

According to Nvidia the Tegra is capable of running HD video for 30 hours on a single charge. It will also bring a whole new Web 2.0 experience to the end users. The HTC’s Tegra-based smartphones will be smarter, speedier and more stylish than any other phones currently available.

Tags for this article: smartphone, nvidia, tegra

The HTC Tilt is the first AT&T smartphone to run Windows Mobile 6, the latest operating system by Microsoft. This unique but versatile smartphone is just the right pick for those who are looking for a multi-specialty device. With GPS and WiFi integration, the Tilt connects you with work round the clock.

Convenience is again one of its outstanding features. The slide-out keypad, along with a 2.8 inch colour screen, make it easy for the user to write e-mails and browse the web. However, HTC has always believed in maintaining a balance between information and entertainment. So to cater to your recreational requirements, the Tilt, aka HTC TyTN II, brings you amazing audio, with a built-in speaker and Windows Pocket Media Player 10. As no smartphone is complete without a robust capturing mechanism, the Tilt has a 3 Megapixel camera with an auto-focus lens. Everything you capture can be stored in and viewed on the 65K colour screen that supports landscape, as well as the portrait mode.

The GSM enabled phone is pocket-friendly with a weight of 6.7 ounces and compact dimensions of 4.40 x 2.32 x 0.74 inches. In addition, there is onboard mapping software from TeleNay, which provides you with location-based service. Acting as a GPS Navigator, the powerful mobile phone assists you by providing audible (on-screen) directions for driving and walking. Moreover, this feature also includes 3-D maps and a traffic alerts service. All this makes it a all-rounder, fulfilling your business and leisure requirements.