Mobile phone maker¹ HTC has launched two Android mobile phones designed to secure its place as one of Apple's top competitors.

移动电话生产商HTC发布两款安卓手机，以确保其作为苹果手机顶级竞争者的地位。

HTC hopes its new phones will help it counter both Apple and Android rivals

The Taiwanese firm hopes to challenge the iPhone 4 with the large-screen Desire HD and the Desire Z with its fold-out keyboard.

Both HTC phones are based on Google's Android operating system.

They come a day after Finnish rival Nokia presented three phones to revive its flagging（下垂的，衰弱的） smartphone division.

Mobile phone makers² and network operators are betting heavily that consumers are keen on a connected and multimedia³ experience on the move.

Smartphone sales soar

Speaking at the HTC launch, Patrick Choumet, global director of terminals at network operator Vodafone, said smartphone sales were soaring, already taking more than 30% of the market; in three years Vodafone expects that smartphones will make up 70% ot total mobile phone sales.

With most smartphones now easy to use, customers are making heavy use of new services. During the past year, Mr Choumet said, Vodafone had experienced a doubling of data traffic for both location services like maps, and access to social networks like Twitter and Facebook.

The new HTC phones play to both trends. They are based on the latest version of Google's Android operating system - version 2.2, nicknamed FroYo - although HTC makes great play of its user interface⁴ Sense, which sits on top of the standard Android platform.

The new HTC Sense is not a revolution; current HTC phone owners will discover a raft of small tweaks（扭，拧） to the software, all designed to ensure a smoother user experience.

Nokia's new top smartphone, the N8, sports a 12 megapixel camera. HTC's HD phone is countering with an 8 megapixel camera that is boosted by fairly sophisticated onboard picture editing software.