HTC preps tablets assault and NFC launch.

WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesús.

Fast-rising smartphone vendor HTC is ramping up its efforts in the emerging tablet market and also promises to launch an NFC-based smartphone within the next twelve months. The world’s number four smartphone vendor unveiled its first tablet, the Android powered Flyer, at the GSMA Mobile World Congress in February, and US operator Sprint Nextel (among other carriers globally) is set to launch a WiMax/ED-DO version of the device this summer.

 "I really believe that the tablet market is really going to be a big market in the future and this is just the start," HTC Europe head Florian Seiche told the Reuters Global Technology Summit. "In five years' time, schools will have tablets probably instead of physical notebooks. I think that's going to be such a massive wave of additional penetration in society... I think we can't even guess the potential." One possible future HTC tablet offering is an LTE-based device that will run on AT&T’s future network. The device, codenamed Puccini, is the subject of unconfirmed reports this week.

The global market for tablets, started only last year with Apple's iPad, will likely grow to 108 million devices next year, compared with just 17.6 million in 2010, according to research firm Gartner. A varied tablet offering would see HTC follow the strategy of rival tablet vendors such as Samsung and Motorola. Meanwhile, HTC’s Seiche added that he expects HTC to roll out its first mobile phone using near-field communications (NFC) technology for mobile payments by this time next year.