HTC invests $75m in wireless patent technologies

Manufacturer looking to get the jump on competitors as 4G networks loom

HTC has acquired more than 80 worldwide wireless technology patents in a $75m spree which could give the manufacturer an advantage over rivals when it comes to supporting high-speed 4G networks.

The company said in a brief note to investors on the HTC web site that it had agreed to purchase 82 issued patents and 14 patent applications from ADC Telecommunications.

The purpose of the acquisition is "to develop the wireless telecommunication technology in HTC", the firm explained.

Pete Cunningham, principal analyst at Canalys, argued that the purchase is not a surprise as companies are constantly looking to strengthen their portfolios.

"You can see the importance of a strong patent portfolio from the constant suing and counter-suing by a number of companies in this space. It was also one of the key factors behind HP's acquisition of Palm," he told V3.co.uk.

"HTC is working hard to grow its business by expanding production and R&D capacity, and this is another example."

However, it is difficult to predict how fruitful the investment will be without knowing the importance of the patents, what they refer to, how many people use them and other such factors, Cunningham added.

HTC acquired French developer Abaxia last year in deal reported to be worth $13.2m (£9m).

The acquisition gave HTC control of embedded applications including Mobile Portal, which allows carriers to add services and information to a phone's idle screen, and Mobile Finder, which brings device and web search to the screen.

Meanwhile, HTC is also gearing up for its first assault on the highly profitable tablet market. The Taiwanese firm is scheduled to start shipping its Flyer tablet in mid-April and will be taking on the Motorola Xoom and Asus Transformer devices.

The Flyer will ship with Android Gingerbread and will feature a 1.5GHz processor, 32GB of internal memory and 3G connectivity.

Online retailer Clove has a list price of £599 for the device, but this is subject to change.