LIVE FROM THE GSMA MOBILE ASIA CONGRESS 2010: Peter Chou, CEO of fast-growing Taiwanese smartphone vendor HTC, used his keynote at Congress this morning to explain how the firm is embracing cloud computing as a way to expand the power and functionality of its smart devices. “Cloud computing will play a critical role in the smartphone experience,” said Chou. “As the mobile becomes more powerful we can’t store everything on the device; we need the cloud.”

He pointed to the launch of HTC’s new service HTCSense.com as an example of how its smartphones can leverage the power of cloud computing. The service – launched last month – allows users of HTC’s Android-based smartphones to manage smartphone data such as messaging on a regular website. “HTCSense.com is about the connected service experience, linking the phone to the cloud,” said Chou.

HTC is currently the world’s fourth-largest smartphone vendor behind Nokia, Apple and RIM, and is growing its market share thanks largely to a portfolio of high-profile Android-based devices. The firm recently unveiled its first devices based on Microsoft’s new Windows Phone 7 platform (the HTC 7 range), which Chou said had generated “tremendous feedback.” He added that the firm placed great emphasis on learning from partners such as Google (Android), Microsoft and Qualcomm.

Chou hailed the rise of the mobile apps eco-system as driving what he called the “customised” smartphone experience. However, he made no reference to recent rumours that HTC was planning to launch its own apps store.