HTC was once the life of the party in the Android camp. By jumping on the open source train early on, HTC rode off into the sunset in a position seemingly more lucrative than being in the business of printing money. And now? Well, for HTC's sake, let's hope the first quarter of 2012 isn't a sign of things to come. Amid increasing competition from Apple and Samsung, HTC on Tuesday reported a 70 percent decline in first quarter profit. For those of you keeping count, it's the second consecutive time HTC posted a sequential drop.

Does the world need or want a 13-inch Android tablet? We're about to find out. Toshiba this week announced the expansion of its Excite line of Android tablets, of which there will be three new display sizes. Two of them are fairly traditional -- 10.1 inches and 7.7 inches -- but the monster sized 13-inch variant is the one everyone is talking about. When it debuts this summer, it will be the largest Android tablet to date.

Tablet sales are expected to reach 118.9 million units by the end of the year, a nearly two-fold increase (98 percent) from 60 million units in 2011, market research firm Gartner predicts. It's no surprise that Apple's iPad leads the way and, if Gartner's crystal ball is in proper alignment, the iOS platform will account for more than 61 percent of worldwide tablet sales by the end of 2012. That too isn't shocking. But would you have guessed that Android will still be chasing iOS through 2016, and perhaps longer?