Apple has filed a lawsuit against High Tech Computer (HTC) of China, one of several mobile phone makers that use Google’s Android operating system, alleging copyright infringements in an increasingly litigious war between mobile phone makers.

Apple has accused HTC of infringing some 20 patents related to the iPhone user interface and underlying technologies. It has also named Exeda, a Houston-based phone maker, in the suit.

Nokia earlier sued Apple and was counter-sued over alleged copyright infringements.

At stake is the booming market for applications that run on smartphones. According to market analyst Gartner, the market for mobile phones in 2009 was flat, but smartphone sales reached 172.4 million units, up 23.8% on 2008.

“In 2009, smartphone-focused vendors such as Apple and Research in Motion (Rim) successfully captured market share from other larger device producers, controlling 14.4% and 19.9% of the worldwide smartphone market, respectively,” Gartner said.

But the two best performers in 2009 were Android and Apple, it said. Android grew its market share by 3.5% in 2009, while Apple’s share rose by 6.2% from 2008, which helped it displace Microsoft Windows Mobile from the number three slot. But both still trail Symbian, formerly owned by Nokia, which has a 46.9% market share.

Gartner found earlier that Apple’s…

Company IDC published a study Worldwide Converged Mobile Device Market. The report says that in 2009 Apple sold 25.1 million handsets iPhone, while in 2008 sales totaled only 13.8 million units. Apple showed the best result in the fourth quarter, shipped 8.7 million iPhone.

The gap between Research in Motion (BlackBerry), which ranks second in the smartphone market has fallen. By the end of 2009, RIM owns 19,8% of the market, and Apple – 14,4%. However, if we consider only the fourth quarter, Apple takes 16%, while RIM - 19,6%.

Nokia continues to dominate the market, despite a slight decline in the proportion from 40% in 2008 to 38,9% in 2009. During the period the Finns had sold 67.7 million smartphones. Fourth place situated HTC, realized 8.1 million telephones (4.6% market share). Samsung with 5.7 million smartphones (3,3% market share) closes the top five.

In general, in 2009, users are happy owners of 174.2 million smartphones, which is 15,1% more than in 2008.

HTC, it seems, have a real good hand to get the trophy in the smartphone race considering specs-wise and hardware-wise: a sleek slim design just 11 mm thick, 3-inch VGA capacitive touchscreen, a full QWERTY keyboard, 5 megapixel autofocus camera. It is equipped with Qualcomm MSM7227 600MHz chipset, 512 MB of flash memory, 256 MB RAM. It also boasts GPS/AGPS capability, WiFi b/g, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, dualband (900/2100) WCDMA/HSPA , quadband GSM/EDGE, and special features such as Motion G-sensor, Business Card Scanner.

But well, it runs on Windows Mobile 6.5…However, as being praiseworthy device that it is, as the guys over Slashgear also pointed out, it does indeed seem to be a good alternative to Blackberry.

The iPhone and Google’s Android may be sucking up all the oxygen of late, but HTC today placed a big bet on Windows Mobile 6.5 with the launch of its HD2 touchscreen phone.

The most noticable feature of the HD2 is its 4.3-inch, high resolution screen. It’s one of the biggest on a smart phone so far.

It’s also the first Windows-based phone that features a capacitive touch display, enabling users to zoom and resize websites, files, PDF documents and pictures by “pinching” the screen – just like the iPhone.

The HD2 also contains an on-screen keyboard and a 5-megapixel camera. With a 1GHz Snapdragon mobile processor, it means users can quickly and simultaneously run applications, videos, games and email.

Users can also gain direct access to a range of social networking sites like Flickr, Twitter and Facebook.

“The HD2 is one of the most advanced phones HTC has ever created,” said Anthony Petts, sales and marketing director at HTC Australia.

Through Telstra’s Next G network, users can gain access to Mobile Foxtel channels and activate five-way conference calls. The HD2 will be available exclusively to Telstra until March 30.

Ross Fielding, executive director for wireless, data and applications at Telstra, says the HD2 can not only be used…

HTC Tattoo is all about you. It’s the first phone that can be customized inside and out. Decide how your phone looks, then decide what you want to look at. Texts? Twitter?

Your photos? When you’re done customizing HTC Tattoo, you’ll have a phone that speaks loudly about who you are and what you’re into.

Express yourself with changeable covers and customization possibilities that make your phone truly unique.

Share your life adventures via easy photo and video uploads to your favorite social networking sites.

Stay close to your peeps with Facebook, Twitter and Flickr woven into the heart of your phone.

Listen to your favorite tunes on the go with your music library organized by artist, album or the playlists you create.

Enjoy multiple phones for the price of one with Scenes that let you create and save different screen arrangements for different shades of your life.