The HTC Legend Android Phone with the Sense UI

HTC has been hiring workers for developing a mobile app store of its own. This piece of information was deduced from the number of people HTC is hiring to build Android apps, to build the store itself and to curate the content. The news of this hiring was brought to light by The Financial Times, who reportedly have some sources on the inside who are passing this information to them.

HTC used to be a company that had famously declared that they are only going to be OEM’s to other brands. However, as time went by and as they continued investing in their popular Sense UI and released it for the Android — the fact that they are interested in becoming a brand themselves is becoming clearer. After the Sense UI being available for their Android phones, the next logical step really is for them to open their own store, which they seemingly are doing.

According the insider information, the app store will not only have apps but also other digital content like eBooks and digital magazines. HTC is apparently putting together a small team for this work, which will be working out of the headquarters in Taiwan but eventually the team will spread to about a 100 people in multiple different locations all over the world.

HTC of course declined to comment and only said that they are growing very fast and hence they are recruiting several different kinds of people. The HTC CEO had earlier said that he does not see much value in the whole app store idea but of course he also said that a 1GHz Snapdragon Android phone is not something the company is working on. It’s just CEO-speak to throw the media and competition off. Jobs does it all the time.

HTC’s market share in worldwide smartphones sales is up from 4.9% over all to 7.2% over all in the last quarter on a year to year comparison.