HTC is a manufacturer of smartphones and related devices based in Taiwan. Whilst HTC originally produced phones that used the Windows Mobile platform, in recent years it has shifted focus to the Android operating system. http://www.techspot.com/news/37259-htc-shifts-focus-away-from-windows-mobile-to-android.html

Its recent phones includes the HTC Wildfire, HTC Desire, HTC Legend, HTC HD Mini and the Nexus One, which was jointly developed with Google, as well as many other models. http://www.htc.com/www/product.aspx

Typically HTC phones are pre-loaded with a selection of widgets and applications, and users can download further apps from a variety of sources including Android Market.

HTC Widgets

Widgets include Bookmarks, Calculator, Calendar, Friend Stream, Mail, Messages, Music, News, People, Stocks, Weather, and Settings. These widgets are used to perform quick, frequently used actions and to show automatically updated information. http://www.techradar.com/reviews/phones/mobile-phones/htc-desire-679515/review?artc_pg=2

For example, the Bookmarks widget allows fast access to favorite web pages via a browser, and launches direct from the phone’s home page.

The Friend Stream likewise takes all the social networking elements a user has specified, such as Twitter and Facebook status updates, and shows them all combined in one place.

The News widget is a feed-reader that allows you to subscribe to stories from selected sites or about chosen keywords. News stories are automatically updated at intervals that the user can choose.

Pre-Loaded Applications

The applications that are pre-loaded can vary from phone to phone, but usually include the most common social networking tools like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

A collection of Google apps is also usually included, including Gmail, Google Maps and Google Earth.

On some phones, pre-loaded apps include QuickOffice which lets users to view Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, Word documents and Powerpoint presentations, along with many other common file formats. http://www.quickoffice.com/

Adding Applications

As well as pre-loaded widgets and applications, users can download free and paid apps from a variety of sources. Android Market is the biggest single site for Android apps, and over 38,000 apps are available, with the number expanding at a rapid rate

Bear in mind that some Android apps have been designed to work with a particular device, as Android phones can vary a good deal in things like screen size and hardware features such as cameras and GPS. However most apps will work well on a wide range of HTC phones. http://www.electronista.com/articles/10/04/23/android.already.at.50k.app.milestone/

Although Android Market is the central, Google-supported, home of Android apps, there is no requirement that applications for Android-based HTC phones have to come from there. Google and HTC are happy for apps to be obtained from any source, including for example a developer’s own website. However it may be easier to find interesting apps in a large, well-organized site, and you may feel more secure buying paid apps from a well known source.

Two alternatives to Android Market that are worth considering are SlideME and Mobango. While they are much smaller than Android Market, they still contain a large selection of apps.

Popular Android & HTC Apps

Popular apps include PicSay PRO and Photoshop, which are both powerful applications for editing, uploading and sharing images.

Advanced Task Killer is a useful utility, as Android phones can multi-task, leading to the risk of having many programs running unnoticed in the background and draining battery life. Advanced Task Killer makes it simple to manage and shutdown unwanted processes. http://www.androidtapp.com/taskiller/

Open Home allows home pages to be customized in ways beyond those that Anrdoid was designed for. http://betterandroid.wordpress.com/2010/02/03/open-home-v4-x-now-on-market/

Nesoid Lite is a free emulator for the Nintendo Entertainment System, and allows users to play a large selection of classic Nintendo games.

Documents To Go allows for working with Microsoft Office and PDF documents. http://www.dataviz.com/products/documentstogo/android/

Astrid is a simple to-do and task recording tool.http://weloveastrid.com/

As mentioned, there are tens of thousands of apps available. This short list will help you get started with finding useful apps for your HTC Android phone.