It looks as if the HTC Droid Incredible 4G is set to make a splash next months as it passes through the FCC ahead of a rumoured April launch.

With HTChaving just annoucned the quad-core HTC One X and Apple set to launch a quad-core iPhone 5 later in the year, things do seem to be hotting up in the smartpone world.

However with a range of smartphones being readied for a tough battle, the iPhone 5 will have to bring something new to reamin as the king of smartphones. Among the phones to challenge the iPhone will be the HTC Droid Incredible 4G along with fellow Android smartphones in the form of the HTC One X, Samsung Galaxy S3, Samsung Galaxy Nexus and different models from Nokia and Sony.

The 16B version of the Galaxy Nexus is due for release on 5 April, while the HTC Droid Incredible 4G is expected on 26 April, heading to Verizon in the US. HTC's Droid Incredible 4G, also dubbed the HTC Fireball, is runmoured to feature a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, Super AMOLED display, 1GB of RAM, 8 megapixel rear camera with a VGA front-facing camera, 4G LTE connectivity and running on Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich). However the Galaxy Nexus (16GB) going to Verizon will feature a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 4.65in qHD Super AMOLED display, 1GB of RAM, 5 megapixel rear camera with 1.3 megapixel front-facing shooter and using the Android 4.0 operating system. Quite a few reports suggest that a price tag of $199.99 on contract is expected for the 16GB version, as the 32GB model is already available for $299.99 with a two-year contract on Verizon.

Meanwhile, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the US has released documents showing what is believed to be the Droid Incredible with 4G LTE is on the cards and will be joining the Droid branded family from HTC. The new phone is also reported to feature new set of connectivity bands and is also expected to come with a AMOLED display which is rarity for HTC branded phones. Although the resolution is expected to be 960 x 540, there is no word on the display size of the phone. Given the information about resolution, most of the 4.3in displayed HTC phones features similar resolution.

However, the biggest challenger to the success of the Apple iPhone 5 might be in the form of HTC One X (which we saw at Mobile World Congress), the high-end killer phone waiting to be launched in June. HTC One X is going to take the battle forward with its bigger display and powerful quad-core processor. The phone's specifications feature: a 4.7in 720 x 1280 pixels Super IPS LCD2 capacitive touchscreen with 312ppi pixel density, weighing 130g, with 1GB RAM, 8 megapixel camera with 2.0 f-stop and ImageSense technology, Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core 1.5GHz processor and Android 4.0.

HTC's smartphone is expected to be thuis year's Samsung Galaxy S2 which toppled the Apple iPhone 4 in UK at times this year, with all the major UK carriers stocking different versions of HTC One series. Orange, T-Mobile, Vodafone, O2 and Three, in the UK are going to launch the HTC One X and One S sometime in April whereas Carphone Warehouse will have all three versions which includes the One V. The market price is expected to be around £500 (One X), £450 (One S) and £260 (One V).

In the US, HTC One X will be featured in AT&T's 4G LTE network and more recently the phone had passed through the FCC with 4G LTE bands 4 and 17 and the device is can connect to AT&T's HSPA+ 4G network as it has 850MHz and 1900MHz radios. However the One X going to be featured on AT&T will have only a dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor chip instead of the quad-core Tegra 3. The Sprint version of the phone is known as HTC Jewel, AT&T version as HTC One XL and T-Mobile version as HTC G4X.

The HTC One series are set for launch in the US during first week of April but may be delayed becasue of a three week production halt of Qualcomm's S4 chip could translate into supply shortages or even launch delays for a few Android phones this spring. TSMC which handles 28nm chip manufacturing has totally shut down production according to certain reports. The European version of the HTC One X will not suffer such a fate which makes use of Nvidia's quad-core Tegra 3 processor instead.

On the other hand, last year before the release of Apple iPhone 4S, many features found in iPad 2 made it to the smartphone. Similar indications are pointing towards the Apple iPhone 5 featuring specifications from the new iPad. So could we be seeing an iPhone 5 with features like a display with 1536 x 2048 pixels resolution, LTE 4G connectivity, iOS 5.1, higher capacity battery and Apple A5X dual-core 1GHz Cortex-A9 processor with quad-core graphics? Many rumors are pointing towards a quad-core processor to come with Apple iPhone 5, however with 28nm chip manufacturing production halted even Nvidia and AMD will also be affected by this stoppage as both are expected to use 28nm chips in their next generation graphics cards. This gives an indication why the new Apple iPad introduced a few days ago did not feature a quad core processor. With new iPad sales set for a new record high, the iPhone 5 is expected to launch in October as Apple set for another bumper year.

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