The rumours of an HTC Facebook smartphone have been confirmed today with the launch of two new Android handsets, the HTC Salsa and the HTC ChaCha. Before you get too excited, the Salsa and the ChaCha are not official Facebook phones, they are HTC’s own interpretation of a Facebook smartphone that does have Facebook support. The HTC ChaCha and HTC Salsa will automatically poll Facebook to share updates whenever they become available....

Not content with thesixAndroiddevicesit unleashed atMobile World Congresslast week, HTC has announced another. The Merge is set to hit multiple US carrier this Spring. As a handset, it’s got some pretty run-of-the-mill specs for a 2011 release. Sporting a QWERTY slide-out keyboard and running Android 2.2 FroYo, the Merge offers a 3.8-inch touch-screen display and a 5 megapixel camera with 720p video capture capability. It also carries HTC’s Sense UI but it’s the CDMA world radio that should interest potential buyers here – this is HTC’s first Android device to carry one....

If you haven’t noticed the massive battle going on between Samsung and Apple over patent violations, you’re most likely in the minority. The news has been a hot topic over the last couple of months and it seems that HTC has been paying attention. The company has purchased S3 Graphics, according to reports fromBloomberg. This purchase not only adds a graphics company to HTC’s stable, it also shores up the company’s position when it comes to patent disputes with Apple....

HTC, which recently acquired London-based mobile platform firmSaffron Digital, is nowplanningto invest a stake in the U.S.-based gaming company Onlive Inc. This is the Taiwanese company’s latest push to expand through acquisitions and gain a better position in the ever-competitive smartphone market. HTC has seen tremendoussuccesswith its early adoption of the Android operating system in its mobile phones. It is now aiming to ramp up its investments in mobile technology to bring exclusive content and applications, in a bid to keep up with rival Apple, Inc....

HTC President in China, Ren Weiguang, revealed the company’s core strategy in the country: to focus on delivering the best user experience, even if it comes at the expense of market share. HTC, the president said, has positioned itself as a high-end brand and will focus on providing the best user experience and value-added services, like HTCSense.com, to be the drivers of success for the company. Although HTC has already been gaining momentum in the international market, it has yet to perform as well in local markets including Taiwan and China....