Taiwan-based High Tech Computer Corp, a smartphone vendor for Google and Windows Mobile systems, will launch its own-branded phones on the Chinese mainland for the first time from the end of this month, Shanghai Daily learned Monday.

Dopod, the brand HTC uses on the mainland, will be dropped and the first HTC-branded phone will debut at the end of this month or the start of next month, an unnamed industry source told Shanghai Daily yesterday.

Officials of Shanghai-based Dopod Communications and HTC declined to comment on the issue yesterday.

The decision to brand its phones marks a move by the Taiwan-based firm penetrate the mainland which has almost 800 million handset users to tank as the world's No. 1 market. The HTC brand adoption will also build awareness of an international brand in the domestic market, industry officials said, as the firm sells phones under the HTC brand in overseas markets.

In the first half of this year, HTC's phone sales jumped 40 to 50 percent from a year ago and helped the firm become one of the world's top four smartphone vendors, Chief Executive Peter Chou told the media recently.

Globally HTC cooperates with Vodafone, T-Mobile and Sprint. In China, its partners include China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom.