In a polite but firm statement, HTC Corporation has responded to Apple's recent legal action. Peter Chou, HTC's CEO, said "HTC disagrees with Apple’s actions and will fully defend itself. HTC strongly advocates intellectual property protection and will continue to respect other innovators and their technologies as we have always done, but we will continue to embrace competition through our own innovation as a healthy way for consumers to get the best mobile experience possible".
He went on to say "From day one, HTC has focused on creating cutting-edge innovations that deliver unique value for people looking for a smartphone. In 1999 we started designing the XDA and T-Mobile Pocket PC Phone Edition, our first touch-screen smartphones, and they both shipped in 2002 with more than 50 additional HTC smartphone models shipping since then."
The statement lists a number of the company's innovations, pointing out that it created the first Windows PDA in 1998, the first Windows mobile phone in 2002, the first 3G CDMA EVDO smartphone in 2005, the first gesture-based smartphone in 2007, the first Google Android smartphone in 2008 and the first 4G WIMAX smartphone as well.