HTC phones with Beats audio coming this year

HTC has made a massive investment in Beats audio, with an eye to filling its smart phones with the hippity-hoppity, bass heavy speaker tech.

HTC head honcho Peter Chou said the Taiwanese tech giant would be ploughing $300m into Beats, in an interview with AllThingsD, and that we could expect to see the first HTC phone rocking the speaker tech later this year.

Beats is best known for its ostentatious Beats by Dr Dre line of headphones, which are so bass heavy they turn your brains to jelly and spill them out your ears. It's only a matter of time before the Daily Mail blames them for the riots.

HP already has a partnership with Beats, sticking the block-rockin' speakers into its laptops, and pre-loading sound equalisation software. No doubt HTC aims to corner a younger demographic -- be hip wid' da kidz, if you will -- by allying itself with a trendy brand.

"With the invention of mobile devices, it is easier than ever to discover and buy new music," Chou said. "However, without great sound experience it is a shame."

It's not clear yet how exactly HTC plans to implement the Beats tech on its phones, and whether it'll show as internal audio processing gubbins, or actual Beats-branded speakers.

Speakers probably wouldn't make for much better sound -- those HP laptops we mentioned sound a little better than most with the Beats tech in place, but they're still slightly on the tinny side. Don't expect HTC phones to turn its phones into mini ghetto blasters -- we suspect this is more of a branding exercise than anything else.

Still, while it churns out some corking mobiles, HTC doesn't enjoy the same recognition that older companies such as Samsung, Apple or Nokia do. So perhaps slapping the big red 'Beats' logo onto its phones will help HTC spread the good word.

Are you into Beats? Do you like the idea of teenagers on public transport possessing even noisier mobiles? Make some noise in the comments section below, or on our Facebook wall.