HTC and Microsoft just put the Windows Phone 8 community on notice -- the HTC Windows Phone 8X and 8S are the devices to beat. What's interesting here isn't that HTC has Microsoft's full blessing -- technically, all Windows Phone manufacturers do -- but that HTC is being allowed to name its next generation smartphones after the platform it's built around. There's no mistaking which OS is running on the show on HTC's devices, whereas less savvy users might not be able to tell you right off the bat what OS Nokia's Lumia 920 is built around.

Companies like HTC and every other smartphone maker competing against Apple and Samsung face a harsh reality, albeit an obvious one -- they're not Apple or Samsung. That should go without saying, but it doesn't make it any easier to swallow the fact that everyone seems to want an iPhone or Galaxy S III. HTC, which played a major role in popularizing Android as a legitimate contender in the mobile OS space, is now struggling to remain relevant in a market it helped create.

Mobile gaming apparently lends itself to strange bedfellows, like HTC reportedly signing on to promote Sony's PlayStation Certified program. And in doing so, HTC finds itself as the only non-Sony entity to secure certification, which it will use to its advantage in the mobile handset market, or at least attempt to. It's not as though companies are beating down Sony's door for a PlayStation Certified stamp of approval.

Just like Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall did in the late 1980s, HTC's One X and Evo 4G LTE smartphones are 'Coming to America', just not necessarily in search of a wife. The arrival of these two devices on U.S. shores was anything but a foregone conclusion, after facing a U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) ban and nearly month-long review process with U.S. Customs officials.