The Taiwanese handset manufacturer HTC has released its figures for the third quarter of this year, showing strong growth due to strong sales of LTE phones in the United States and flagship phones in China.

The figures show that HTC shipped 13.2 million phones worldwide in the third quarter of this year, an increase of 93% over the year before. The revenue generated for this quarter amassed a total of $135.8 billion, with a net income of $18.6 billion. Although that might sound like a small operating margin, but it’s still higher than other Android carriers such as Motorola and Samsung. Apple, on the other hand, currently enjoy an operating margin of 31.2%.

The firm’s success seems to be down to two main factors: LTE in the US and smartphones in China. In the US, HTC were the first to ship an LTE device with the Sensation. They found a lot of success with this, and so now they’re trying to ship the first LTE device for the AT&T network in the JetStream tablet.

In China, phones in the mid to upper ranges are becoming increasingly popular. The HTC Wildfire has become the standard smartphone for many Chinese citizens, and the HTC Sensation and ChaCha have also seen impressive sales figures there.

A third reason is that HTC have flooded the market with a great variety of phones for all kinds of price points and features, making it easy to find an HTC phone that suits your needs. Their solid reputation for build quality and slick software undoubtedly contributes to their success in this method, as even if you buy a less expensive HTC phone it generally still compares favourably to other phones in its price range for durability.

HTC is looking towards the future, releasing more LTE devices and also partnering with Beats Audio to raise their street cred. The strategy looks solid, but the firm is facing stiff competition from Samsung and Apple, who are hitting the market hard this month and the next with the iPhone 4S and the Galaxy Nexus, two flagship phones which are expected to prove incredibly popular. For this reason, HTC lowered their outlook for the fourth quarter below analysts’ expectations.

We’ll have to see how their strategy plays out – they are still due to announce their own HD smarpthone, the HTC Rezound, later this month, which could do well against the Galaxy Nexus due to its similar specs.

This article was written by William Judd. William writes for Mobile Fun, the UK’s leading online retailer of the Kindle cover, including the new Kindle cover and the Kindle cover with light.