There are reports that the mobile phone making giant, HTC, is planning on launching 8 new handsets into the market in 2010. Five of the smartphones are supposed to feature Google's Android platform, while the remaining 3 will be based on Windows Mobile 6.5. The smartphones have been categorized into 4 kinds - Social, Design/Lifestyle, Productivity and Performance.

HTC Legend, is the first in the line-up, which is expecting a March 2010 launch and falls under Design/Lifestyle. It is supposed to be a HTC Hero successor. This is going to be a 3.2" HVGA AMOLED touchscreen device. It will sport a 5MP camera with flash and autofocus. Apart from the internal 256MB of RAM and the 512MB of flash memory, microSD cards will also be supported.

April 2010 will see the launch of the HTC Bravo. This handset will also be a touchscreen phone but with a larger 3.7" WVGA AMOLED capacitive touch-display. Memory features will be similar to that of the HTC Legend. Even this gadget will house a 5MP camera, which will have the ability to capture 720p videos. This is supposed to be the Performance oriented phone.

The HTC Tide will also be launched in April. It will sport a 2.68" QVGA touch-sensitive display. A 2.3MP camera, 256MB of RAM, 512MB of flash memory and a microSD card slot will all be present. The HTC Buzz is expected to be released in May. This will have a 3.2" QVGA capacitive touchscreen. Most specs will be similar to that of the HTC Legend, with a 5MP camera, 256MB of RAM, 512MB of flash memory and microSD card support. Apart from these, this handheld will feature face tagging as well. Both the HTC Tide and the HTC Buzz fall under Social phones.

The HTC Salsa is supposed to be released in June and has been classified as a Design/Lifestyle phone. This device will sport a physical QWERTY keyboard. It will also have a 2.6" QVGA touchscreen, a 3.2MP camera and the usual memory specs of 256MB of RAM, 512MB of flash memory and a microSD card slot.

All the handhelds mentioned above are supposed to be the Android handsets. The other three Windows mobile 6.5 handsets are - HTC Photon, HTC Tera and HTC Trophy. The first 2 are to be released in April and the third, in May. The Photon will be a 3.2" HVGA touchscreen phone with a 600MHz Snapdragon processor. It will also feature a 5MP camera. The Trophy is supposed to be a candybar with a QWERTY keyboard and a 3" VGA screen. A 5MP camera will be a part of this handset too. The HTC Tera will have a slide and tilt form factor, like the HTC Touch Pro2. It will pack in a 3.2MP camera.

Currently, only these details have been made known. We'll keep you posted regarding release date, offers and mobile phones deals when we get more updates.