HTC breaks its own sales and profit records, keeps riding the smartphone wave to success

Another quarter, another spectacular set of financial results for HTC. The once-small Taiwanese phone maker reports its net income for the first quarter of 2011 nearly tripled earnings in the same period of 2010, now totaling an impressive $513 million. Overall quarterly revenue was in the vicinity of $3.6 billion and the causes cited were, rather predictably, demand for Android smartphones and higher-speed internet connectivity (as provided by the likes of the EVO 4G and Thunderbolt). Guess now we know why the stock markets are loving HTC so much -- the company just can't stop growing!

REVIEW - HTC 7 PRO

This is a review of the HTC 7 Pro Mobile Phone, running Windows Phone 7. The HTC 7 Pro is a Windows 7 phone with a dedicated slide and tilt keyboard. The 3.6 inch 480 x 800 WVGA screen has pinch-to-zoom capability. There is a 5 megapixel camera which has autofocus, flash and 720p HD video recording. This 3G phone has up to 7.2 Mbps download speed, and up to 2 Mbps upload speed. It has GPRS, G-Sensor, a digital compass, a proximity sensor and an ambient light sensor. The HTC 7 Pro is a Quad band phone weighing 185 grams and has a battery which allows up to 330 mins of talktime or 360 hours on standby.Review after the break...

HTC Incredible S, Desire HD, Desire Z and original Desire will all be eating Gingerbread by the end of June

When it launched the Incredible S at MWC a couple of weeks ago, HTC promised the new 4-inch device would be quick to get a Gingerbread update and now it's giving us a definitive schedule for it by saying that Android 2.3 will be distributed to its new flagship phone by the end of Q2 2011. We're not sure four months of sitting by the window waiting for the OTA update to float in necessarily matches up to our definition of "quick," but there are much better news for owners of HTC's older devices. The Desire HD and Desire Z -- both released in September 2010 -- will also be leaping away from Froyo and up to Gingerbread and will be joined by the original Desire, which was announced way back at last year's MWC. That handset was essentially HTC's own-brand Nexus One, so we already knew it was capable of running Gingerbread, but it's still rare to see a device go through two significant Android updates (the Desire began life with Android 2.1). All these old Desires are placed on the same update schedule as the Incredible S, whereas the newly announced Desire S and Wildfire S will ship with Gingerbread preloaded.

Sprint HTC Arrive with Windows Phone 7 copy and paste first hands-on!

HTC also brought along a Sprint-branded Arrive to our San Francisco reader meetup, and while we're already familiar with this Windows Phone 7 slider from our time with the HTC 7 Pro it's still nice to see a CDMA WP7 device in the flesh. Oh, and the keyboard is pretty fantastic -- not only does it feel great, but the dedicated number row alone is reason for keyboard fans to give this thing a look. The best part? The demo unit was loaded up with the Windows Phone 7 copy and paste update, which is the first time we've seen it in the wild. The system worked well, but we noticed that you once you paste out of the clipboard your text is gone, so you can't multiple paste. It's a little odd.Update and video after the break...

HTC Merge first hands-on!

HTC just rolled in to set up for our San Francisco reader meetup tonight, and what's this? They brought a brand-new HTC Merge with them. No one's talking about what carrier this interesting Android slider is going to launch on yet, but that Verizon-red earpiece and search button aren't exactly coy. Apart from that, it's pretty much exactly the device we've seen leaked all over for months now -- a really nice landscape Android slider with a solid keyboard.Video after the break...

HTC's newest Android flagship phone revealed

Why bother waiting for its official Mobile World Congress reveal in February when you can view the newest HTC flagship today? The touchscreen slate prototype (notice the serial number stamped along the bottom of the handset's face) you're looking at above matches the leaked Pocketnow render exactly including the arcing earpiece and isolated front-facing camera with chrome ring. It was just spotted by an eagle-eyed tipster while waiting for a Taipei metro system. Sorry Windows Phone 7 fans, this baby is Android through and through. And seeing it in the wild lends credence to all of the HTC devices pictured in that leak. A couple more snaps after the break....

PICTURES - HTC INSPIRE 4G

The guys at Engadget has published a few pictures of the HTC Inspire 4G. The HTC Inspire 4G is one of the bigger smartphones, with 4.3″ screen and a line of capacitive keys below it. We guess it will be very similar to what Europe has in the face of the HTC Desire HD, but with AT&T’s 3G bands. It packs the latest version of HTC’s Sense user interface (Android).Pictures after the break....

HTC 7 MOZART REVIEW

The HTC 7 Mozart is a phone which uses the Windows Phone 7 operating system. It is a sleek handset made from a single piece of brushed aluminium. It has a 3.7 inch glossy Super LCD touchscreen with an accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate, and SRS Surround Sound. There is an 8 megapixel camera with autofocus, Xenon flash, face detection and HD video recording. It has voice dialing and a built-in speakerphone. This Quad band phone weighs 136 grams and has a battery which allows up to 5 hours of talktime or 18 days on standby.Videos after the break.....

HTC HD7 and the Dell Venue Pro Video comparison

The guys at pocketnow compares the two Windows Phone 7 devices, the HTC HD7 and the Dell Venue Pro. The HTC HD7 is easily available in any of the stores that you can go to, but the Dell Venue Pro is only available through Dell’s website. Both devices are closely priced, have similar specifications, and run Windows Phone 7 beautifully, but how exactly do they differ? Video after the break...

HTC Thunderbolt with LTE for Verizon pictured ahead of CES unveiling?

So, that lovely 4.3-inch LTE smartphone with Android for Verizon we've been calling the Mecha and the Droid Incredible HD? Looks like it might come to market as the Thunderbolt, so says Droid Life -- and we tend to put some weight on the rumor considering that they've just run twelve leaked shots of the thing. As you can see, this is clearly Verizon's head-on answer to the EVO 4G, featuring similar stylings and, in all likelihood, an LTE modem swapped in for the EVO's WiMAX one. Sure looks like that "controlled" leak from a few days back, doesn't it? More on this at Verizon's press conference next week, we presume.