Taiwanese phone manufacturer HTC is planning to produce more android phones this year, the company said. The company discloses the launching of at least three smartphones based on Google's Android platform.

According to HTC CEO Peter Chou, Tuesday, the company will be shipping at least three more Android-based Google smartphones this year, at a Merrill Lynch technology conference in Taipei, Taiwan.

HTC has already launched the T-Mobile G1 and the G2 will go on sale first in April in Europe through Vodafone. The other two models do not apparently have a firm release date.

HTC has slowly started to increase its smartphone market share, climbing to 4.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008, up from 3.7 percent in the year-ago quarter, according to Gartner.

The launch of the three Android phones this year would more solidify HTC's lead in the Android market. Chou affirmed the company's projected 10 percent to 20 percent growth forecast for 2009 and said that HTC hopes to make significant inroads in the Chinese market.

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