Apple and Samsung's Biggest Competitor Arrives This Week

Over the last two years, very few smartphone manufacturers have been able to successfully challenge Apple AAPL and Samsung. Nokia NOK, which was once the world's largest cellular device producer, has struggled to earn consumer support for its Windows Phone 7 and Windows Phone 8 line of devices. The company has been making progress, selling 4.4 million Lumia devices during the last quarter. As impressive as that may be, it pales in comparison to the 47.8 million units that Apple sold during its first fiscal quarter. Depending on who you talk to, BlackBerry BBRY may not be performing any better. While the device has had some success at retail, analysts have been very pessimistic about the company's future. Motorola Mobility, now a Google GOOG company, has not been performing any better. If there was one positive growth story in 2012, it would have to be LG. The company's Nexus 4 handset (which was built for Google) sold one million units in one month. Again, this pales in comparison to the iPhone, but it is a solid effort. With so many failures and second-place contenders, there is only one global player left to forcefully compete with Apple and Samsung: HTC. HTC is set to release its long-awaited flagship handset, the HTC One, this week. The device features a 4.7-inch display, a Qualcomm QCOM Snapdragon 600 quad-core processor, 2GB RAM, 32GB storage and dual front speakers. Benjamin Ho, HTC's newest marketing chief (the third hired in less than two years), told The Wall Street Journal that the company has "lot of innovations but we haven't been loud enough." From this point forward, the company is done with being Quietly Brilliant. Louis Bedigian is the Senior Tech Analyst and Features Writer of Benzinga. You can reach him at 248-636-1322 or louis@benzingapro.com. Follow him @LouisBedigianBZ