Apple and Samsung's Biggest Competitor Arrives This Week

Over the last two years, very few smartphone manufacturers have been able to successfully challenge

and Samsung.

, 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

during the last quarter. As impressive as that may be, it pales in comparison to the

that Apple sold during its first fiscal quarter. Depending on who you talk to,

may not be performing any better. While the device has had

, analysts have been

about the company's future. Motorola Mobility, now a

company, has not been

. 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

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

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

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.