HTC guns for top 3 smartphone makers

HTC chief executive Peter Chou aims to use the momentum of his company’s Android success to take on the big three smartphone vendors – Nokia, RIM and Apple.

 

Chou said that 2009 was a banner year for HTC, and he expects business can only get better as the smartphone market grows.

 

“Smartphones will account for 50% of handset sales by 2013,” Chou claimed. “We are currently among the top five smartphone companies. By 2013, we will be in the top three.”

 

Getting there may not be so easy, however. Nokia, RIM and Apple currently occupy the top slots in the smartphone business. According to Forward Concepts, third-ranked Apple captured close to 15% of the smartphone sector in 2009. HTC ranked a distant fourth at 6.3%.

 

In his quest for a top three spot, Chou says he won’t be abandoning Windows Phone any time soon.

 

At a press event to launch three new Android-based smartphones at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Chou said he was fully committed to working with Microsoft to develop smartphones for the new Windows Phone 7 OS.

 

“We will be releasing a whole portfolio of amazing Windows 7 phones later this year,” he promised.

 

HTC is the largest manufacturer of Windows-based smartphones, although it has been generating far more headlines for its sexier Android device Nexus One.

 

HTC’s Android-based Hero smartphone won the GSMA’s Best Handset or Device Award this week.